Shooter: Majestic Revelations design document version 6.4

Shooter: Majestic Revelations design document version 6.4 is a pre-release design document for Shooter: Majestic Revelations, the precursor concept to Deus Ex. Dated 02/17/98 1:38PM, the document describes concepts and game designs that existed during the early stages of the development of Deus Ex.

Many of the concepts described in the document are similar to those in an earlier design document, design document version 5.3e dated November 1997. One notable difference is that the organization that eventually became UNATCO was now known as ATC instead of TCL (Terrorist Limitation Coalition) in the earlier design document.

Missions and locations

No.	Mission Name	Travel Map	Locations
Act 1
0	ATC	ATC Headquarters	HQ Building, Underground Training Facility, Equipment and R&D, Dr. Reye'ssic Office, Mr. Manderley's Office, Weapons Training, Obstacle Course
1	The Drug Bust	New York - the waterfront area of Manhattan island's downtown urban ghetto	The Docks, Ford Shick's lab, Mixer Shea's seedy Bar, The Smugglers' Warehouse, A Crack House, The 'Ton Hotel
2	The Drug Lord	New York, as before with the addition of a heavily defended, walled compound you only saw from afar in Mission 1	Rat's Compound, "New York locations as described in Mission 1"
3	Why Does ATC Want You to Investigate?	New York, as before but with the addition of off-shore locations	Black copter landing site, Lebedev's Yacht, New York locations, as described in Mission 1
4	Escape from ATC	TLC Headquarters	"As before"
5a	Get to Hong Kong	New York, Hong Kong	Plastic surgeon's office, LaGuardia International Airport, "New York locations as described in Mission 1"
5b	Find Tracer Tong	Hong Kong	Preferred Bar, The 'copter R&D base, Tracer Tong's Lab
6	Get the Firmware	Hong Kong	Majestic 12 Technical Development Lab / Versa-Life
7a	Save Paul	Hong Kong	Majestic 12 Asylum
7b	Destroy the Ambrosia Synthesis Lab & Storage Facility	Hong Kong	Oil Refinery Platform, Ambrosia Development Lab
Act 2
8	Find the Cure for Ambrosia Addiction	Hong Kong	Tracer Tong's lab
9	Restore Your Brother's Mind	Hong Kong, ATC Headquarters	Tracer Tong's lab, ATC HQ, Jaime Reyes' apartment
10	Find Dowd and Delay the Fall of Texas	Central Texas	Austin (including ruined downtown, the capitol building, Tilson & Ghoul's hidey-hole, the ammo dump, the food stores, and the general's camp), Houston, The Concentration Camp, The Texas Independent Militia HQ
11a	Nigel Naismith	London	North Greenwich Station, Underground, Monkton Farleigh
11b	Beth Sung	Washington, D.C.	Washington Monument, Sung's building
11c	Mort McTavish	Underwater Los Angeles	Keisha's claim zone, The Retreat, The Ruins
11d	Jacques Marnier in Area 51	Area 51, Groom Lake	The Little A'Le'Inn, The Base
12	To the Vault	Denver	Denver International Airport, The Vault
13	Camp David	Camp David	Only Camp David
14	Mount Weather	Mount Weather	Mt. Weather exterior, Mt. Weather Interior
15	Get to Bob Page	Central Texas	Bob Page's Estate, Adam Computer Complex
Act 3
16	Locate Carrier Agents	New York (now including portions of Long Island), Houston, Texas	New York Federal Prison (Long Island), ATC Branch Office (New York), Secret ATC Base (New York), NASA Mission Control (Houston, Texas), Downtown Houston (Texas), Downtown New York
17	Destroy Adam's Network	Russian Military Complex	Russian Space Agency, Military Base Perimeter (including one nearby farm, one small town), Military Base, Missile Complex (two silos, one launch control center), Satellite Uplink Station
18	Yamantau Mountain	Yamantau Mountainm Russia	Small Russian Town outside Yamatau, Yamatau Mountain (Russia), Technology Center (Yamantau Mountain)
19	NORAD (Cheyenne Mountain)	Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, USA	Cheyenne Mountain (Colorado), Computer Core
20	Orbital Solutions Inc. Reconnaissance	Orbital Solutions Complex, South Florida	Orbital Solutions Corporation Perimeter, Orbital Solutions R&D Building 23, Computer Complex (Building 28)
21a	Cape Canaveral	Cape Canaveral, Florida	Cape Canaveral, Mission Control
21b	Cape Canaveral	Cape Canaveral, Florida	Cape Canaveral, On-board the Shuttle Endeavor, Exterior Helios Space Station (Earth Orbit)
22	Get to Helios Station!	Orbital Solutions Inc. Complex, Florida	Orbital Solutions Inc. R&D Complex, Orbital Solutions Inc. Launch Facilities (Florida), Orbital Solutions Inc. Launch Pad 4A, Exterior Helios Space Station (Earth Orbit)
23	Aboard Helios Station - Stop Adam!	Helios Space Station, Earth Orbit	Engineering Ring, Living Quarters Ring, Science Rings, Station Exterior, Cargo Area, Medical Labs/Hospital, Central Computer Core

Locations

Hong Kong

The Preferred Bar

“

This place was a popular disco during the years of English rule but age has left it a little the worse for wear. Tracer Tong owns this joint and hangs out here (when he's not at his lab).

The entrance is on the north wall and, after passing through a small mirrored alcove populated with a few dead plants, you enter the main area. While passing through the alcove, there are tiny, unobtrusive intruments scanning for weapons, transmitters, and the like. Dominated by a large split-level room, there is a long bar against the length of the east wall. A row of shadowy, low booths line the west wall. Directly opposite the entrance is a huge bank of outdated video monitors that once filled the room with animated light but are now nothing more than shadowy mirrors casting distorted reflections. Some of the monitors have been shattered or cannibalized, leaving black sockets that dot the wall. Scattered about on the lower level of the floor are the original tall tables and stools, while the upper level near the monitors has mismatched low tables and chairs scattered across what used to be a dance floor. The upper level is reached via a wide set of stairs that are in the center.

The remainder of the north wall is mostly stage, painted black and stripped of lighting and sound equipment. The stage is now piled with spare and broken barstools, stacks of plywood, some equipment boxes containing cables, tools, and lighting hardware. An old drum set painted with a red sun is crammed into the corner. Behind the stage is a barred and chained loading door.

There are bundles of raw wires hanging from the ceiling over the former dance floor, where high tech lighting and sound equipment was removed and pawned over the years. There are still a few spotlights that pierce the smoky darkness, and a few strips of blood red neon are all the illuminates the row of booths on the west wall. Seemingly everything has been painted black - ceilings, columns, walls, furnishings - everything.

A dim sign points the way to a small corridor with a public video phone at one end, and entrances to the men's and women's restrooms on the left and right. The videophone has some sort of bodily fluid smeared on the screen, and layers of phone numbers scratched into the wall around it. There is some dusty change in the return slot!

Both restrooms are spacious, foul smelling and strewn with trash. Mirrors are cracked and broken, ceiling tiles are missing, and in the men's room the sink has been yanked off the wall and lies crooked on the floor, stained with blood.

Behind the bar is a doorway that leads into a deep, narrow storage room painted pea green and lit by a single row of flickering fluorescent lights. The room is filled with empty kegs, cases of liquor, and some pressurized soda cylinders. There are also some boxes filled with glasses, cleaning supplies, and promotional t-shirts. A door in the back of the storage area leads out into an alley. (The alley can be explored but leaving it returns the player to the travel map.) Set into the left wall of the storage room is a walk-in refrigerator containing a few keys, some cases of imported bear, and two headless chickens hanging by their feet.

The surface of the bar is highly polished wood, covered with nicks, scratches and burns. Behind it is a special cushioned floor for the bartender(s) to walk on that saves dropped glasses from being broken (and muffles the sound of footsteps). At one end of the bar, out of the customer's reach, is a credit terminal and a small screen that displays warnings when armed patrons enter through the alcove. The bartender has a shotgun underneath the bar. Racks of half-empty bottles line the wall behind the bar, with empty glasses piled in between. Sitting on a shelf behind the bar is a female mannequin with its face painted like a geisha and dressed in S&M attire.

Tracer Tong's Lab

“

There are massive floating islands made up of linked junks dotting Kowloon Bay. Tracer Tong's lab is currently located in a large junk he owns. (He often has to move from place to place to stay ahead of the authorities. At various times, his lab has been in a secret basement area below The Preferred Bar and, once, he even set up shop in an abandoned sewer system below police headquarters.)

Tong's junk is in the center of a small "island" composed of five other linked boats, moored in the middle of a cramped inlet. Needless to say, it hasn't moved in years. IT can only be reached by boat and then by leaping gingerly from junk to junk until you reach it. (The travel map deposits the player at a gangplank boarding the outermost vessel of the group.)

The decks of the surrounding five boats are very similar. All feature long, board primary decks just above the surface of the water with very little or no railing. Ripped, threadbare canvas awnings and screens stretch above the decks, providing dappled shade. Near the rear, each has a cabin of particleboard or plywood, and forward they each have a common area where crewmen loiter, prepare meals and dine, and do shipboard chores. Below each deck is a single room that acts as a communal living quarters for the family on board. (Entire families, including dogs, live on the surrounding barges, acting as Tong's servants and to aid in passive off the flotilla as just another poor community.)

The boats are snuggly tied to the much taller central junk with thick ropes and cables. Broad ramps allow you to walk from deck to deck of the surrounding boats, and a steep gangway leads up to the port side of Tracer Tong's junk.

Jumping into the water and swimming under the mass of boats reveals that there is more to this manmade island than meets the eye. The primary ship is moored to the bottom of the inlet with waterproof cables and fiber-optics, and thick feed lines and hoses run from the bottom of the harbor to the junk's hull. These provide fresh water, electricity, communications and data, and other unguessed amenities. There is also a metal hatch with electronic locks set into the lower hull.

The deck of Tong's junk is cluttered with barrels of salted fish and pickled vegetables, bundles of plastic rods, piles of nets, an old refrigerator, laundry tub, coiled ropes and chains, and heaps of collected junk and debris. Twisting through and around the clutter on deck are cleared and worn paths from the gangway, circling the outer edge of the deck, to the main cabin at the rear of the boat. A hatch leads below deck aft and a hatchway leads below amidships. Among all the items on deck, a sharp-eyed observed will spot a partially concealed satellite dish and antenna array! Colorful tarps are draped over the mast and a frame of bamboo to provide shade for the entire deck.

The main cabin is entered through a low doorway and, inside, hanging paper lanterns and incense burners sway gently. The portals are covered with heavy curtains that allow only small shafts of light to penetrate the dusty air. It is one large room, but screens are set up to divide it into smaller areas. A dining room features a low table and seating cushions, and small tables and stools are cluttered with eating and serving utensils, spices, preserved foods, and bric-a-brac. Two small sleeping areas (one for Tong and one for his partner, Dr. Feng) are not much more than piles of silky cushions and blankets, so disorganized it is difficulty to tell where the beds ends and the floor begins. Clothes, both traditional Chinese and western, are strewn about. Shelves on the wall are crowded with books in several different languages.

A ladder leads to the poop deck, situated on top of the main cabin. There are rudder controls, engine controls, and some crude navigation tools.

The aft hatchway drops down into a greasy room that houses the ancient and rarely used diesel engine. The floor of the room is ankle deep in a foul water/sewage mixture. What little light there is down here comes through the hatch - most of the area is deep in shadow. There is a low shelf with a few tools, a flashlight with dead batteries, and an empty fuel can.

The hatchway leading below decks uses stairs so steep they could be considered a ladder. They come down into a large room, formerly a hold for fish, that has been converted into a living area. This room, like the deck, is crowded with accumulated junk. Asian furnishings and artwork, rolled carpets and bolts of cloth, baskets, boxes and crates crowd the room. Swinging from a beam overhead is a large cage containing several songbirds that shriek when anyone climbs down the stairs (a cheap and reliable alarm system). In the center of the room is an open area reserved for four wicker chairs that ring a low tea table, all on an ornate woven rug. An elegant porcelain tea service rests on the table, and the eyes of a dozen Buddha statues in the room seem to focus directly on this spot. Behind and to the right of the stairs hangs a wall tapestry depicting a Feudal Chinese judge ruling over a court of Confucian law. Stepping over an old bicycle and pulling aside the tapestry, you will see the electronic door leading to the laboratory.

The concealed laboratory is a stark contrast to the ship above. The rooms are well lit and well ventilated. The air is pure, fresh and uncomfortable cool despite the humming high tech equipment that clutters the rooms. This not collect junk but state-of-the-art equipment that would make any gearhead drool. The Lab complex consists of three connected rooms, Computer, Tech Research, and Operating Room.

The Computer Room

“

The Computer Room is ringed with four computer terminals, each flanked with tables that are piled high with chips, boards, tools, and data storage media. One wall is covered in paper thin liquid crystal and plasma and high-gain emissive displays. These show readouts from dozens of automated programs Tong's computers are constantly running. Some of the readouts are monitoring technology new, flagging new developments and devices. During surgery, these displays show what the surgical spider is doing, allowing Tong to control their actions when necessary. The monitors provide the only light in this room. There is a single wheeled chair here, allowing Tong to roll from station to station.

The Tech Research Room

“

The Tech Research Room has lockers and cubbyholes filled with piles of tiny motors, circuit boards, and electronic components. A powerful microscopic design station is here, next to a plate piled with half-eaten fish. Workbenches are strewn with the tools and materials used in generating precision machines and electronics.

The Operating Room

“

The Operating Room is even colder than the rest of the lab and is dominated by a frightening chair and table. The table is a flat, steel platform that can swivel and turn to any position. Suspended over it is a sprawling stainless steel spider-like device, with a multifaceted glowing eye in its center. The chair resembles a dental chair, and it also has a smaller version of the surgical spider built in behind the head.

The Spiders

“

The spiders' computer-controlled arms wield a variety of mechanical and laser surgical tools, programmed and overseen from the main Computer Room. For some operations, Tong wields the surgical tools himself, but most of the time the computer is much more efficient - his job is to ensure that they're programmed precisely and correctly. There are portable tables here piled with medical supplies, drugs, and more surgical tools (for those times when only hand-work will do). The floor is scattered with crusty bandages, used swabs and syringes, and other medical waste.

During operations the room is sealed and flooded with Medi-Gas, which acts as an anesthetic, prevents infection, and speeds healing. The surgeon(s) must wear masks to provide them with air while in the room.

A small door in the rear of the Tech Research room, partially covered by a bookcase containing stacks of technical journals, leads to the cramped utility room. This is where an electronically controlled hatch exits the shop below the waterline. Trunks of power cables and utility fields enter switching boxes and are distributed to parts of the ship. The room hums with power.

Majestic 12 Technical Development Center

“

A Hong Kong based insurance company, Versa-Life, is headquartered in a venerable (by Hong Kong standards) building that is still beautiful and classic. The building has elegant stone columns that front a wide glass entryway. Just inside the auto-opening doors is a marble lobby, with hanging chandeliers, lush plants, and a reception desk occupied by a leggy receptionist and a stocky, gun-toting security guard. Discreet cameras seem to cover every square inch of the lobby. In the rear of the lobby, beyond a comfortably furnished waiting area, are two bronze doors of Oriental design, flanked by armed guards. There is much more security here than you would think an insurance company needs.

Just inside the bronze doors are rows of cubicles, five wide, stretching to the rear wall. Each cubicle contains a small desk, a telephone, and a dumb terminal. Windows of frosted glass evenly light the room during the day. At night, the windows let in the flashing neon light that defines much of Hong Kong's business district, making for some dramatic, fireworks-like effects. The back a row of offices looks out over the sea of worker drones. None of the workers look up from their station no matter what happens and, from time to time, while they carry out their sales calls in various languages, their monitors flash a sequence of words and images that are almost too fast to perceive. They are very productive.

All of the data collected is being fed into powerful computers in the basement level of the building. A security elevator in the rear goes down one level to the Central Processing Room, where personal data is processed and stored for potential Majestic 12 use. It is a well lit, white room, wrapped in banks of computers and data storage. The terminals here have access to some lower levels of the Majestic 12 operations.

Majestic 12 Asylum

“

This is a small island built far out in the harbor using the Japanese method of building land. (All the non-organic wastes of the city were dumped in the same area for nearly a year until an island was formed.) The resulting island was stable and the government chose to build a prison out there.

It soon became apparent that as a prison it was too costly to run. About this time a small religious group came forward and offered to buy the prison from the Hong Kong Government, to use as a treatment facility for the insane. Due to the humanitarian nature of the proposal, the deal was quickly signed. However the religious group was a front for the Priory of Zion, which in turn was an arm of Majestic 12. Majestic 12 has used the hospital as a holding facility for people too dangerous to their plans to let run free, but still useful enough to keep alive.

The building, in the English Colonial style, is red brick with off-white plaster columns. The front doors open onto a lobby with looks very much like any hospital lobby in the world. After you have passed through the lobby, there is a small hall with various doctors' offices. These are tastefully decorated and professional in appearance - beyond that, in areas where the public isn't allowed, it's another matter.

In private areas, the walls are a sickly gray color. Long hallways lined with heavy steel doors held closed by electronic door locks keep "patients" isolated from one another. Tiny dark cells - more 19th century than 21st - feature a hard, low cot, a stained washbasin and a flush toilet.

Overall the atmosphere inside the building is oppressive and dreary, this is not the place for happiness or joy.

Old Oil Refinery / Majestic 12 Drug Lab

“

During the oil boom of the 1980's and 90's several offshore oil platforms were built just a short way from Hong Kong harbor. While various environmental groups raised concern and alarm, there never was a problem with the platforms. However, eventually the oilfields ran dry and the platforms were sold or dismantled. The oldest surviving refinery platform, Platform HK2, was sold to one of Bob Page's companies in the early 40's. That refinery is now one of Majestic 12's primary drug labs and factories. Its remote location gives Majestic 12 almost perfect security, and an easy way to clean up after any accidental security leaks.

The platform, like many other offshore platforms, is a maze of piping and rooms, all very industrial and Spartan. Lots of exposed gray metal, tubing, rivets, etc. Several offices and control rooms are scattered throughout the structure. There is also a large barracks and dining facility. The platform was originally designed to allow a crew of several dozen to stay onsite for several months at a time.

Perhaps the most important thing from Majestic 12's point of view is that the platform has on-site storage for several hundred thousand gallons of liquid. The storage containers were once used to hold oil before it could be pumped to the small tankers that would stop by every few days. It wasn't a problem for Majestic 12 to clean the residue of the oil from the inside of the tanks and convert them to drug storage. These storage areas are contained in the large hollow concrete legs of the structure. Each leg is approximately 200 feet tall and perhaps 40 feet in diameter at its widest point. There is a series of catwalks along the outer wall of the tanks.

ATC Headquarters

Headquarters - Main Building

“

A three-story building with a basement level, this late-20th century structure is roughly "H-shaped," with the "I I" parts mostly single rows of offices racing inward and solid glass walls looking outward. The entrance to the building is through the "-" part. You pass through two sets of double-trick, bullet proof glass doors into a small atrium. A curved wooden reception desk sits in the center with metal detectors on either side (one for entrance, one for exit). Armed guards (though not augmented agents) stand by the detectors. Seated at the reception desk at all times is a young man or women who IS augmented, at least to the extent of having a datalink for immediate, secure, silent communication in the event of trouble.

Beyond the reception desk, deeper in the atrium are a glass elevator, a winding stairway, and walkways connecting the rows of offices. The underground level (primarily used for training areas) is a little more spread out, with well-lit tunnels leading to the different facilities.

Overall the building has the feel of an agency that either has a limited budget for space and had to settle, or one that wishes to remain low-profile. The walls are a drab off-white, and the floors are done in sandalwood and dark brown checkerboard tile. Fluorescent lights buzz in the ceiling, exit lights glow red, and a fire extinguisher seems to be mounted every 20 feet.

Decorations are scarce. On the first floor, just before the stairway, is a giant replica of an ATC badge. On the second floor are a series of trophies won by the ATC softball team. On the third floor landing is a bronze statue of an eagle.

The majority of offices are small. Many are unoccupied and remain locked at all times. Occupied offices bear a small simulated wood name tag beside the door.

Equipment Storage and R&D

“

Upon entering, there is a registration desk to the right. To the left is a demonstration/testing area.

The registration desk has a retina scanner, print reader, voice recognition microphone, and a no frills data entry terminal. Beyond the desk is a gate controlling access to three wide aisles of equipment lockers. At the end of each aisle is a stylized mannequin, sporting the latest in ATC body armor and clothing. Along the walls are spacious shelves that contain a wide variety of ATC equipment.

The demo area is, essentially, nothing more than a wide, open space with a few tables, mannequins, and props for testing ATC devices. Scattered about the open space are a pane of bullet-proof glass, a phone for demonstrating tapping devices, etc.), a vehicle testing station, a small weapons testing area, a sealed room for testing various gases, etc.

There are almost always white-smocked technicians working on and/or demonstrating their latest work.

Dr. Reyes' Office

“

Doctor Reyes is working out of a temporary office behind the Eagle statue on the third floor. It is a large office than most, decorated in a classic (some think old-fashioned) style. The examination room and office are in one contiguous space separated by a folding screen decorated with a Mexican design. The examination table and medical cabinets are not standard hospital issue, but are made of wood and brass to match the office furnishings. This gives the room a more relaxed, non-medical feel.

There is a desk, high backed leather chair, two guest chairs, a bookshelf, a medical examination table, cabinet with sink and basin, small rolling table, low stool, and a tree of various medical utilities. Lights, probes, scanners, EEG and EKG wands.

There are many hints of Dr Reyes' heritage in the office. A colorful fan hangs on one wall, on his desk is a bronze statue of a burro pulling a cart, and behind his desk on the wall is a document from the Government of Mexico, praising Reyes' volunteer work in that country. There is a cactus shaped bowl of sugar-free candy on the desk. Also on his desk are some diagrams of biomechanical augmentation devices, and a bookshelf contains several knickknacks and a few books on prosthesis and bionic technology.

Mr. Manderley's Office

“

Manderley's office has a vague resemblance to the President's Oval Office. There's bulletproof glass at his back and a high-backed leather chair behind a grand, oak desk. The chair is flanked with flags, one of the United States and the other bearing the ATC seal. Two guest chairs and a short sofa are arranged so that he can hold meetings in the office.

To his left a group of video monitors cycle through key points around the HQ: lobby, elevator, equipment room, and the hall outside his office. On the right is a power computer terminal. The walls are covered in antique wallpaper, and a huge oriental rug is spread out on the floor.

Training Level - Weapons Training

“

Half a dozen steel-doors lead from a central corridor into shooting ranges. These ranges do not follow the standard layout of a 20th century shooting range. Instead, the shooter stands at the narrowest point of a wide fan shaped room and animated and holographic targets appear along the firing zone, and do many unexpected things to surprise and distract the trainee. Fans blow wind and dust into the shooter's eyes, speakers generate loud, distracting noises, and the computer controlled lighting constantly changes.

Posters along the rear wall (the one behind the shooter, offer detailed instructions on cleaning and maintenance procedures for a variety of weapons. An ammo locker provides the rounds needed for practice. A bucket filled with spent shells sits on the floor by the firing station.

A small access door is set low in the wall at the wide end of the fan-shaped rooms lead into a narrow service corridor. The service corridors are dimly lit and lined with the wiring, computer equipment, fans, plumbing and projectors that drive the shooting range "special effects."

Above the shooting station, a camera looks over the shooters shoulder, a computer logging and analyzing the agent's shooting style and habits.

Training Level - Obstacle course

“

The entrance to the obstacle course is down a narrow flight of stairs at the far end of the firing range corridor. At the base of the stairs is a steel door and, beyond that, is a small locker room with a couple of rows of lockers to the right and a shower/bathroom facility to the left. Beyond the locker room is the staging area for the course.

Like something from American Gladiators, the obstacle course is a massive room containing a long row of machines and devices. The room can quickly and easily be altered to suit the particular training or testing needs of each agent, depending upon his or her mission or specialty.

A typical arrangement looks like this: The first challenge is a fast, uphill treadmill that forces the player to run in order to reach the top. From there he must do a standing jump up a steep staircase, and from that perilous height make a running jump to another landing. The landing leads to a catwalk without rails, and a computer controlled pungee sticks try to knock you off into the water far below. Shooting the pungee sticks shatters them and clears the path. At the end you have to jump into the water anyway, and swim through a submerged tunnel into the next series of tests. Holographic enemies, realistic sound effects and (at times) live ammo from remotely controlled weapons on swiveling wall- and ceiling-mounts, add to the challenge.

New York

Waterfront / Harbor Area

“

The trials and tribulations of the past 50 years haven't really touched the New York waterfront. The are is still mostly dominated by heavy equipment and the stereotypical dock workers. While the workers and the cargo they handled are now much different. The actual atmosphere hasn't changed much.

Through the 20's and 30's, most cities moved their shipping harbors into the suburbs, but New York resisted and flourished. During that period of urban flight, New York held onto and even strengthened its position as the primary East Coast gateway for goods into the United States. As a result Manhattan Island is now completely surrounded by piers and warehouses. New York maintained a strong grip on US shipping well into the 40's.

By that time, however, it had become obvious to even the most optimistic that New York would inevitably lose its place. By the end of 2048 it happened. While New York was, and is, still a major port, the bulk of goods began to be diverted to suburban ports further south. Middle class flight and the scarcity of trucking companies willing to enter the city sealed the harbor area's fate. As the bulk of the shipping business moved away from New York, a new group of people started to use the abandoned shipping facilities - the drug dealers and smugglers who could take advantage of the piers and docks and warehouses for their own ends.

Dock Area

“

The area of the waterfront mentioned in the design document lies in the Battery Park area. This area has seen much better days.

The remains of the old fort/aquarium/museum still remain. While it fell onto disrepair in the 2040's, recently, it has seen something of a revival, as the Drug Lords took it upon themselves to refurbish the area. They did this not for history reasons, but because the old fort still made one of the best, and most secure areas on the island. The city government, glad to have something being done, turned a blind eye to its final use.

Warehouses and attractions for the dockhands and the sailors that frequent the area now dominate the area around the fort. These attractions are mostly bars and various locations feeding the rather carnal appetites of the area's patrons.

Unfortunately, the new masters of the area have different priorities then those in the past. As a result, while the areas around the warehouses have nice wide streets, the traffic jams of forklifts and other freight moving equipment make them dangerous for people on foot. The bars and shops away from the docks and warehouses tend to sit on small crowded side streets, littered with the refuse of months, perhaps years.

Most of the shops are decorated with neon lights and lurid, garish signs in an attempt to attract customers. The area is mostly rundown and poorly maintained. The sewers often get blocked and backup - sewage periodically runs down the street and into the harbor.

Ford Schick's Lab

“

Schick, better known as the Chemist, has a lab in a small rundown building that looks like it was constructed out of an old shipping container. Inside is a fairly utilitarian collection of equipment for the manufacture and purification of cocaine, crack and other old-fashioned drugs.

The Chemist tries to maintain as much of a professional attitude as possible given his surroundings. The place looks (and is) dirty and cluttered - there's just too much stuff in too small a space - but, while there is trash on the floor, it has been pushed into the corners and the tables and work areas are fairly clean.

The walls are corrugated steel reinforced with steel L beams. There is a small calendar on one wall, a filing cabinet in a corner and lots of metal shelving holding vials and beakers of who nows what (though there's an ancient lava lamp - still functional - on one shelf, casting a weird light on the place).

The Mixer

“

Run by Jordan Shea, this is one of many bars in the area. It is little more then a big room with several tables and a long bar. Various bottles of colored liquid, claiming to be alcohol, sit behind wire mesh doors on the bar back.

The place is decorated in urban decay, the floor is steel plate with raised treads, and the bar is rusting steel, as are the tables. The chairs are made of Re-bar. In all, the place would have been very fashionable about 50 years ago. Now it looks hopelessly out of date and run down.

On the walls are various neon signs for beers and wine coolers. Several of them are burnt out of flashing their last.

Smuggler's Warehouse

“

This is little more then your standard warehouse.

Physical storage hasn't changed much over the years. It's a large dimly lit building, with steel shelving. The floor is concrete, cracked and pitted in places. There are several forklifts in the building. There is a small office near the front of the building.

The office has several desks and is very cramped. There is an aging computer and several telephones. On the desk is a small mountain of invoices and other papers. There must be some order to them but none that the casual observer can detect. The walls are covered in clipboards with yet more invoices and manifests on them. Behind the clipboards are some yellowing old posters, mostly for tool companies, showing scantily clad women holding various hand tools.

About the only thing seemingly out of place is that the doors are new and made of steel, with an expensive electronic lock on them.

Think of a Sam's Warehouse if it was left to sit for 20 years.

Crack House

“

This used to be a small bank building. Now it is used by one of the smaller drug lords as a distribution point. . The Front lobby is still fairly open, with several guards standing watch over the customers. Clients walk into the lobby, hand their money over to a "teller" and are given the drugs they requested. The "Tellers" sit behind a bulletproof glass wall.

The vault has been converted into a packaging location. Raw drugs are brought in and cut. Then repackaged into smaller units that the tellers sell.

The building itself is made of brick and looks like it has been maintained pretty well (though it's pockmarked, inside and out, with bullet holes and cracked paint.

The décor of this place still screams bank - they even play soothing music in the background, appropriate to the current season or upcoming holiday.

The Ton Hotel

“

As the New York area declined in the 40's the more wealthy and influential people moved away and tourists started staying away in droves. As a result the city's hotels were forced to close and relocate. They attempted to sell their property but found that the only buyers willing to acquire real estate this far into the city offered only a fraction of what the property was worth - it was definitely a buyer's market. In the end, they had no choice and sold at a loss.

The Ton hotel (so-called because only the last three letters of the rooftop sign still light up), used to be a rather fancy hotel. (It was once a Sheraton). While the new owners try to convince themselves it's still an okay place to stay, in reality, the Ton is little more then a flophouse. The building definitely has seen better days. The carpet is faded and full of holes, some of which have been patched with a variety of fabric patterns. The great chandeliers are still there, but look as if they haven't been cleaned in ages. The escalators no longer work, and room service is spotty at best. Only the lobby level and lowest 2 floors of rooms are open. The rest of the building is blocked off and warning signs are posted, as the building was condemned years ago and the rest of the building is dangerously unstable - the fourth floor collapsed onto the third floor years ago.

The clientele now consists of dock workers and the transients of the area.

Bob Page's Estate

Bob Page's House and Grounds

“

Bob Page is like many other fantastically rich people in 2052 - he spends a very large amount of time trying to avoid spending even very small amounts of time with other people. To achieve this goal he has, over the years, managed to buy the top of a large hill just outside Austin, Texas. He has been quoted as saying that he owns the highest point in town, but no one is really sure. To further isolate himself from the masses his estate is sealed behind a large remotely controlled iron gate. The general look and feel of his house is that of an Elizabethan English Manor house crossed with a more modern style. It almost succeeds, but not quite.

The house, three levels tall (four if you count the observatory in the central tower) is covered in stucco, painted off white. Gargoyles and Griffins watch balefully from various perches on the exterior of the house. A small moat - too deep to wade through, surrounds the house and extends out to the west, opening up into a lake with a small man-made island in the center.

The house sits on perhaps 20 acres of land, encompassing the entire top of a hilltop overlooking the remnants of one of the largest public parks in Austin. Short, scraggly juniper trees and the remnants of a very old attempt at a private vineyard cover the land. The undergrowth is dense and nearly impassible. The grounds are bordered on three sides by fairly steep cliffs. Accessible is only possible by the road, which of course is gated.

Inside, the house is mazelike and riddled with secret passages - there is one from the den to the kitchen, and another from the upper library to the wine cellar and the lower library. It's possible to get from any room to any other room without ever setting foot in the "public" portions of the house.

In addition to the rooms you'd expect to find, there are several rooms filled with just about every gadget and device that has ever made a technogeek salivate, from ancient medical devices and toys to the most modern of technological marvels. There's also a state-of-the-art home theatre that doubles as a communications center, linking Page to the rest of the Majestic 12 organization.

The Adam Computer Lab

“

In a secret basement under Bob Page's house lies a large complex of rooms accessible only via a locked, alarmed, secret door in one of the house's secret passages. This door leads to an elevator and the elevator leads to a series of rooms, each of which houses a single power generator. (The power requirements for Adam are enormous)

These rooms form a large ring, in the center of which is a large airlock door, which leads to the catwalks overlooking the chamber housing Adam. The whole thing very much has the layout of a giant spider web, with Adam in the position of the spider. Adam towers some 20 feet tall and takes up an area almost 10 feet square. Radiating out of this tower are many cables and conduits.

There are several technical labs and operating suites on the lower level. This whole area is very utilitarian. Mostly concrete and steel, with only the occasional splash of color.

Characters

Allies

Name	Description
Katie Andrews	The range instructor at ATC HQ, Katie is a crack shot. You don't want to run up against her in a fair fight involving any kind of firearms. Despite her youthful appearance, she's a battle-tested veteran who's as good (and tough) a teacher as she is a field agent. Some newbies think her appearance is a license to give her a hard time. They quickly learn that she's nearly as skilled in hand-to-hand techniques as she is with firearms. Range-users who give her a really hard time sometimes run up against her in the obstacle course. They don't generally give her a hard time after that. Appearance: Deceptively small, agile as can be, almost illegally cute (though you'd never want to tell her that). She most often dresses in camo-chic clothes designed to provide concealment for a variety of small arms without binding. The other agents give her a hard time about the fact that she dresses more like a field agent than the field agents do... but only once.
Nick Baldo	An ATC computer geek and hacker extraordinary. There are countless game situations that require the player to manipulate, search and/or reconstruct computer code and data. Nick's the game who does this for you. Appearance: Nerdy, computer geek. Looks like a teenager but is actually in mid-20s. Rail-thin, long fingers just right for keyboarding, hawk-nosed, shock of long, scraggly black hair. T-shirt with computer company logo, ripped black jeans, glasses. Wouldn't look out of place in a techno club of today except for one thing - he's into body modification. Not just tattoos or piercings (though those are fine) but neural jacks, minor body augmentations, RAM chip slots in skull... Nothing TOO obvious - he's subtle - but scars and small jacks would be out of line.
Sam Carter	Carter's the Equipment Officer for ATC, kind of the Q equivalent. He lost his leg in a mission years ago but hasn't bothered to get an up-to-date prosthesis. He's a tough, no nonsense, old-fashioned kind of guy. Takes everything literally, so joking goes clear over his head most of the time. He spends a fair amount of time talking about the good old days and how things were when he was in the field.... When he's not talking about the old days, he's generally talking about lockpicking or some physical hack or other. He's always got a ready supply of lockpicks handy and he's never found a lock he couldn't beat. Appearance: Well, he's only got one leg - the other is a prosthetic limb. The prosthetic should look totally space age but NOT human. Technology has advanced far enough that he could have a near perfect replacement for the lost leg but he sticks with his old standby, despite its whirring and clicking and buzzing and need for lubrication and stuff. His hair is stark white (what little of it is left) and he's almost never seen without his white laboratory smock. Think "Q" from the Bond Films.
Paul Denton	J.C. Denton's brother. There's certainly a family resemblance but they have different personalities - Paul's more out-going and less serious. J.C. worries a lot that his brother, sharp as he is, will get himself in trouble someday because he isn't paranoid enough... Appearance: Think the Player Character, as described above, but older and with more than a dash of James Bond. Paul always looks sharp in a 50 years from now dressy kind of way. (Just extrapolate from modern business attire). On missions, he favors form-fitting camo outfits, tailored to the needs of the mission. Hair's always cut short, so it won't get in the way. Paul's far more concerned about his appearance and dress than J.C..
Dr. David Feng	Tracer Tong's business partner, Feng handles the medical and cosmetic aspects of the black market augmentation business. A practical joker - just what you want in a surgeon! Appearance: Graying Oriental man. Likes to wear operating scrubs covered with (fake) blood, just to get his customers in the mood for a little slice and dice.
Dr. Joanne Frances	She helps you build the descrambler you need in order to determine the whereabouts of three agents. Becomes an ally and helps you at certain times during this act. You hunt her down at NASA's Houston complex, behind enemy lines. You get her to help you by agreeing to get her out from behind enemy lines. Appearance: Sigourney Weaver from Aliens but not so muscular - dirty, sweaty, a little thin (she's behind enemy lines, after all) but resourceful and attractive. Dresses mostly in mud and sweat these days. Pants too big and ripped. Shirt blousy and also torn.
Joe Greene	Greene's a journalist working for a disreputable rag along the lines of the National Enquirer. He started out a total skeptic about the whole conspiracy business but, over the years, has come to believe there's more going on in the world than most people suspect. In fact, he probably knows more about what's really going on than anyone else the player can find. He'd love to break out of the tabloid field but who's going to hire a guy with nothing on his resume but hack writing? The player can win him over by feeding him information he can use in his weekly column. And Joe reciprocates by sharing what he knows with the player and allowing him to use the column as a way to send messages to allies and enemies alike. On the down side, Joe can end up very dead if the player isn't careful about how he manages the relationship... Appearance: Disheveled, rumpled guy who looks like -- and is -- a guy with one suit to his name, one tie, one pair of nice shoes. His clothes are hopelessly out of fashion. Not that he cares -- if he had his druthers, he'd never wear a damn tie or a damn suit or a pair of fight shoes. His boss insists on a certain level of decorum in the office, however...
Chinwa Kit-Wei	J.C.'s best friend of many years. Chinwa, Paul and J.C. went to college together and, together, decried the state of the world. Though they took different paths to get there, all vowed to fight to make the world a better place. Chinwa returned to his home in Hong Kong where he rose through the rank of the Police Tactical Unit. Appearance: With an Asian mother and African father, Chinwa looks something like Tiger Woods - part black, part Asian. However, for Tiger Woods to pass as Chinwa, he'd have to do a lot of weightlifting and probably a bunch of steroids - he's a big guy, built like a truck. In dress, he's a little flashy - favoring the increasingly popular Afro-Asian style which is both attractive and reflective of his heritage. (Think traditional Communist Chinese dress with African print coloring.) Since he doesn't have any augmentations, he's unscarred.
Anna Navarre	An ATC augmented agent, one of the first you meet. Dresses plainly, doesn't wear makeup. Quiet and reserved. The perfect undercover agent. No one would suspect her of being anything but a librarian or a schoolteacher (to dredge up offensively sexist cliches...) Appearance: Plain, blends into the scenery. Dark hair, medium dark complexion. Vaguely Hispanic.
Dr. Jaime Reyes	Reyes, like J.C., is a recent addition to the ATC roster. They both came over from the agency's training facility and Reyes considers J.C. a friend (though he outranks him considerably). Reyes is 30ish, of Mexican descent, and has some real problems with the current Russo-Mexican-American war situation in Texas. He has relatives down there, fighting on both sides of the conflict. He, himself, doesn't understand what's going through the head of the folks south of the old border. Reyes is emotionally ill-suited to the life of an anti-terrorist agent. He takes deaths very seriously and has a hard time following orders that make no sense (though all he does is agonize over them - he always follows them...) Appearance: Heavyset but not fat. Reyes is the white-smocked, futuristic-stethoscope-toting doctor figure. Short black hair slicked back, black-framed glasses, dark complexion, thick but nimble fingers.
Ford Schick	This guy, better known as The Chemist, is a low-life, small-time drug synthesizer operating out of one of New York's sleazoid districts. He also happens to be the best in his craft. He just lacks ambition. J.C. can appeal to his better nature and get him back on the straight and narrow, giving him something bigger than himself to work for. The product of an upper-class, WASP, suburban, live in the gated communities in the lap of luxury childhood, Ford turned his back on his parents and their lifestyle and turned his talents to the drug trade at an early age. He's made a fair amount of mony but the whole situation nearly killed him - he's dead inside, a real low affect kind of guy, until J.C. gets hold of him and sets him straight. Appearance: A bearded, bedraggled Anthony Michael Hall on a bad day. He's unaugmented and not into body mods, but he has a few telltale scars - evidence that a couple of his clients caught him scamming (or thought they did). He's got a puckered half-moon scar below his right eye, where someone threatened to gouge it out and he's only got four fingers on one hand as a result of a stray bullet fired at Ford's ex-partner, now deceased.
Squirt	You meet this little guy in the very first mission and, if you let him live, he'll reveal some important information and, later, offer to join you. He's smart but not well-educated and knows no life other than the life of the streets. Hard to say how old he is - could be as young as 14 or as old as 20 but he's got the survival instincts of a guy ten years his senior. He's also small and lithe enough to be a terrific tunnel rat - for exploring (and escaping in) tight spaces, there's no one better. Appearance: About 5' 3" and skinny as a rail, he's a kid with just a hint of a moustache (which he cultivates to make himself look older - he doesn't succeed). Should have some kind of crazy hair - weird cut, weirder colors. Lots of fake body mods and tattoos. He wears pretty non-descript clothes but covers up as much as he can with found items designed to look like armor - bits of tires as should and knee-pads, chain belt, etc.
Diane Tisdale	Tisdale is the player's virtual link to HQ and, later, to his home base. Though you meet her in person at HQ< most of your interaction with Tisdale is via your datalink. The idea is to pair agents in the field with computer guys, like Tisdale, in the home office, pair action-oriented guys with info-gatherers to achieve the highest level of mission efficiency. These gatherers describe themselves as your "Eyes and Ears" but everyone calls them EE's. Tisdale can do database search and other kinds of research, can download information to her field partner during a mission and can "speak" directly into J.C.'s head - silent communication with the home office is available at all times. Unfortunately, Tisdale gets killed at one point in the game and Adam appropriates her voice and image, taking advantage of your affection for her, in order to manipulate you through your datalink. Appearance: In the flesh, Tisdale is really attractive and a little flirtatious (in a Bond.Moneypenny sort of way). She's young, sexy, slight English accent. Guaranteed to send shivers up and down our predominantly male audience's spines. (I'm partial to long, straight, dark hair and a natural, healthy look - as opposed to either the anorexic supermodel or pneumatic TV/movie star looks, but beyond that, I leave it to the artists to fill in the blanks with regard to her appearance...) Question: Any problem with having Tisdale be just as flirtatious with a female incarnation of J.C. Denton? I think it's fine. Any objections? Note: The player occasionally runs into Tisdale in person, but most of the time Denton interacts with his buddy virtually - she's usually presented to the player as a translucent holo image, head and shoulders only, floating in space, obscuring the 3D scene as little as possible.
James "Tracer" Tong	Tracer, J.C.'s first ally after he leaves ATC, is a doctor but he's more mad-scientist/technology freak. An ace technologist and biohacker, he's renowned in the black market augmentation field as a black marketeer can be and still be effective. Born in Hong Kong before it reverted to the Chinese in '97, Tracer survives and thrives in the repressive environment of his native country. Though the government places serious restrictions on body modifications, enforcement efforts are lax, so people come from far and wide to get themselves upgraded. He has more contacts in different fields of endeavor than anyone on Earth (or, at least, in Hong Kong) and greater expertise with human augmentation than anyone else alive. Though he's loyal to those who earn his loyalty, he's a greedy guy who makes sure he gets paid for his effort. Nothing Buddhist and anti-possession about him - he wants to get his hands on every new gadget that comes down the pike. Because of this, his base of operations has the appearance of a garbage heap or a flea market. (This situation that isn't helped by the fact that he often has to move his base of operations to stay ahead of some over-zealous politician out to make a name for himself by shutting down the body mod trade...). Unwilling to ask his clients to do anything he wouldn't do himself, Tracer is a walking pin-cushion. He bristles with augmentations - everything in the catalog, even though he doesn't use the mods particularly. (In other words, even though he has vision like an eagle, is as fast as a jaguar and strong as an elephant, he doesn't tend to make use of those capabilities in his daily life.) Appearance: Tracer is in his late 50s and so thin he makes Nick Baldo look like a tub. The most important thing to remember is that he doesn't care a whit about his appearance or hygiene or anything like that (except when he's in the operating room and such things become important). His skin is pale and leathery. His teeth are yellow and oddly skewed. His nails are long (though not so long that they interfere with manipulating the machines he's created to perform delicate augmentation surgery) He certainly doesn't bother about plastic surgery to pretty himself up after he puts himself under the automated knife of one of his augmentation devices. (He's just going to rip out his old mods as new ones become available anyway...) Basically, Tracer looks and dresses like the archetypal Confucius character but with scars that really would scare small children if he ever appeared in public.
Jock	A pilot who ferries you into and out of mission locations, usually in a commandeered black helicopter acquired during an early mission. Jock was once a test-pilot for the US Air Force, based out of Groom Lake's Area 51 complex. He always suspected weird stuff was going on there, far below the surface, in places he wasn't cleared to go, but he never saw a hint of alien activity or any other stuff conspiracy buffs believe. You meet Jock in the Preferred Bar in Hong Kong and he offers to take you to Tracer Tong if you pay him. If you get him some hardware - a 'copter, to start, and later even faster more impressive flying machines - and he'll take you anywhere you want to go. All he asks is, if you and he ever split, he gets to keep the hardware. The guy is never as happy as when he's in the thick of battle. The black 'copter gig he was part of just seemed silly to him and more than a little unsavory. When you find him, he's morese and sullen but as you draw him into your circle of allies, he starts to liven and lighten up, becoming once again the copter jock he used to be. He much prefers fighting for the good guys. After a while, he sticks with you out of loyalty, rather than greed. Appearance: In his younger days, Jock looked like Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Now somewhat older, he still favors the flight-suit-and-shades look of the fighter jock, but he's a bit heavier (though not flabby) and his sandy hair is thinning some. Square-shouldered, square-jawed, six-footer.

Enemies

Name	Description
Jojo Fine	A smalltime drug dealer in the sleazy New York dock district. This guy's total scum. He preys on the weak and helpless and only confronts J.C. when he's certain he has a numerical advantage. Under any pressure at all, he cracks, revealing himself to be a real wimp. Man, does he overcompensate most of the time, though. Give him a gun or a knife and someone smaller than himself and he's a terror. Appearance: Flashy dresser, very chic in a low rent kind of way. LOTS of body mods but they're all cosmetic, designed to scare people who don't know any better. Lots of chains, fake weapons, tattoos, piercings, weird hair (color and style). Jojo hardly looks human anymore.
Georges Genet	A friend who becomes one of Adam's controlled carrier agents. Before becoming an ATC augmented agents, Genet was in the employ of the DGSE, the French foreign intelligence organization. Attracted by the opportunity to work with representatives of many nations in a worldwide effort to eradicate the growing threat of terrorism, he sought and was given permission to join the international organization as one of its first agents. His size and girth make him less effective as a field agent than he might otherwise be - he doesn't blend in well with a crowd - but for certain types of missions (those requiring immense strength, stamina and sheer will), there's no one better. If he weren't strong as an ox even without his augmentations, he'd find himself the butt of a lot of offensive jokes about his size. As is, no one gives him a hard time. To his frustration, the game finds him assigned to guard the Adam computer. Genet ends up carrying a portion of the Adam code and must be stopped by the player before he can download it. Appearance: A squat, powerful bear of a man, Genet is unnaturally short and really wide. He's about as close as the game gets to a comic book figure in appearance. Think Gerard Depardieu with about a foot lopped off of him or (for the pulp fans in the audience), picture the Monk character from Doc Savage.
Gunther Hermann	An ATC augmented agent, one of the first you meet. Becomes a carrier agent under Adam's control. Appearance: The very picture of an Aryan gentleman.
Alex Jacobson	An ATC augmented agent who starts out an ally but becomes a carrier agent under Adam's control. Smart as a whip. Creative thinker. A guy who puts what everyone takes to be two and two together and comes up with five much of the time - and who happens to be right more often than not... Appearance: Average height and build, Sandy blond hair with some hints of red. Thick glasses. Really good-looking guy.
Keisha	The leader of a piratical scavenger gang living in sunken Los Angeles, Keisha is gruff and uncooperative. Nothing but trouble. She kicks butt, takes your stuff and doesn't EVER bother to ask questions. Kicking her butt is a real pleasure... Appearance: Keisha's a stunningly gorgeous, amazonian woman, large-boned, six feet tall, with muscles like no woman outside of a comic book and peumatic breats to match. She has long black hair tied in a ponytail and a face stuck in a perpetual frown. Think Lara Croft on steroids.
George Kittman	A diehard ATC guy. Refuses to believe you when you explain he's being manipulated. Appearance: Think G. Gordon Liddy. A real upright Marine type with square shoulders, brushcut, and nasty looking shades.
Juan Ivanovich Lebedev	A Majestic 12 deep cover operative and known druglord. Lebedev is a notorious Vodka drinker and heartless terrorist. When sobor, he's a master tactician and a genuine leader of men. When drunk, he's a slob. His aides spend a great deal of time keeping him under wraps when he's been drinking. Loves to brandish his fancy six-shooter when dealing with defenseless folks who need to be impressed by how tough he is. As soon as things start to look bad, the six-shooter goes away and the futuristic elephant gun comes out. Some people think he's augmented but no one knows for sure. (He isn't, being pathologically afraid of needles, but he wants everyone to think he is.) Sports a bunch of fake tattoos (again, no needles, so no real tattoos). If this information gets out, he can be humiliated easily to great effect. He's also crazy - there's no reason for him to be in the front lines of the Ambrosia operation other than personal pleasure. The craziness may also explain why he doesn't mind being used by Majestic 12 to frame his homeland for a crisis it really has nothing to do with... Appearance: A modern day Pancho Villa with the flushed face of a drinker and the off-center eyes of a guy who isn't quite all there. He carries an old-fashioned, pearl-handled six-shooter on his right hip and a state-of-the-art gun of about the same size but with enough firepower to shoot through schools.
Dr. Manderley	Manderley is the player character's boss at ATC. He has an almost professorial air about him -- commanding respect through his intellect rather than through an imposing physique. Some of ATC's field agents express their contempt for Manderley -- never to his face but always behind his back -- because he came from Intel rather than Field Ops. Appearance: An owlish man, once thin but filling out, now that he's past the age of distinguished gray and is heading toward mandatory retirement. Tends toward old-fashioned tweed jackets, bow ties and pants with a razor crease that's really quite impressive. Manderley's one bow to vanity is his refusal to wear glasses he sorely needs. Spends a lot of time squinting unnecessarily. Burst in on him at the wrong time and you'll catch him snatching reading glasses from his reddening face. In appearance, think Professor Waverley from the old Man from UNCLE TV show and you've got it.
Bob Page	One of the 19 members of Majestic 12's voting leadership. Creator of the Adam computer. An immensely wealthy, power-hungry, 40-ish control freak, technogeek who lives in the Pacific Northwest. He is SuperNerd - everything a nerd with too much money fifty-odd years in the future with access to secret high technology would be. He has a datalink, has had his tiny frame augmented, and has handsome (altered) features, but still manages to have unkempt hair and doesn't know how to dress, making him a geek at first glance. He is intelligent and manipulative, and he will be the guy who shuts Adam down the first time. Lives in a heavily fortified estate riddled with secret passages, state-of-the-art defense systems, etc on a hill outside of Austin, Texas. Appearance: A good geek gone bad. Wavy, unkempt red hair in a hideous pageboy cut. Coke-bottle glasses. Kind of goofy looking despite the expensive, albeit casual, clothes he wears, the manicures, and so forth. (Okay, so Page is the Bill Gates/Richard Garriott love child, so sue me - just change him up enough that neither one of them is tempted to sue...)
General Francisco Castro	The leader of the RMA troops laying siege to Austin, Texas, Castro is a shrewd leader and no one's fool. Though he has no formal military training, he rose through the ranks of the most dangerous and deadly drug families and has a solid, if solely intuitive, grasp of military strategy. Unlike most of his peers in the drug trade, he was a voracious reader of history, biography and radical political literature. Castro claims to be the illegitimate grandson of the late Fidel Castro, but it's all lies. Castro is NOT his real name - he adopted it, along with the grandson role, as a young man, looking for a way to set himself apart. Though he stole the name, his adopted grandfather would likely be proud to have the man in the family. He's a solid revolutionary and a charismatic leader second to none. Even the staunchest American patriot might find himself swayed by Castro's anti-American rhetoric, given enough time. The man will likely run the Russo-Mexican State of Tejas, if the bad guys win... Appearance: Castro dresses in precisely the manner of his namesake. Green fatigues, combat boots, revolutionary-style baseball cap. He has the bushy beard, too. He's trim, fit, just beginning to gray at the temples and in the beard.
"Rat"	New York's highest ranking drug dealer at the street level and a genuinely menacing figure He's little more than a middle man between the real powers that be and the small-time hustlers who work for him (guys like Jojo Fine). However, he commands an army of mid- and low-level goons and that makes him dangerous. He can overwhelm his foes - including J.C. Denton - with an army of expendable thugs. And then there are the rats... He's always surrounded by them - they follow him as if he were the Pied Piper (when, in fact, he simply dispenses food and drugs that tickle the pleasure centers of the rodents' brains - often the same drugs he dispenses to human customers.) He likes rats better than people and they return the affection. Mess with the Rat and you could find yourself fending off a swarming army of rats. Appearance: He looks like the animal that gave him his name. His hair is so thick and covers so much of his body, it looks like fur. The parts of his body not covered by hair are covered with fur coats and fuzzy pants. Some who've seen him naked insist he even has a bit of a tail... His face is long and thin and his teeth, whether naturally or by design, are sharp and pointed. His nose twitches when he gets angry but the effect is anything but comical.
Insects & Animals	By midgame, Adam should have an army of roaches, spiders, mice, rats, dogs, mountain lions - you name it- to use as his spies and soldiers. The player should never know when that animal over there is just an animal and when it's one of Adam's controlled creatures, eyes through which Adam can spy on you. Worse, you never know when it's just a scout and when it's the first of a million roaches about to drop from the ceiling on your head. Appearance: Obviously, these should look a lot like the original animal with just a HINT of a control device sticking out of some part or another. A really observant player should be able to tell but it wouldn't bother me if telling required a magnifying glass and/or sticking your head all but in the mouth of a slavering Doberman pinscher.
Thugs, Goons and Cannon Fodder	In addition to NPC's with "speaking parts," we'll need good guys, bad guys, and neutrals whose primary role is to fill out our world and/or to hinder the player's progress through maps and missions. This hindrance can be active (combat-oriented) or passive (innocents pushing baby carriages who just get in the way and so forth). In a drug-interdiction mission, these background NPC's might include users and hookers and guys to load and unload cargo, as well as guys with weapons to defend the ill-gotten goods. In ATC HQ missions, we'll need non-augmented agents and the like. In investigatory missions involving legitimate businesses, we'll need secretaries and security guards. In military missions we'll need soldiers. We want to ensure an escalating level of difficulty during the game. Thugs in mission one should be relatively easy to dispatch. Their boss, Jojo, should be somewhat tougher. Later, in the Yamantau complex, the thugs should be tougher even than Jojo and there should be some kind of "boss" equivalent guarding the computer you need to get to. Appearance: Some missions will share "Generic Enemies." Other missions will require unique ones. Details to come...

Neutrals

Name	Description
Toby Atanwe	Marshall of the Los Angeles claim authority. Atanwe was born in the New Hong Kong district of Lagos, Nigeria but moved to the Los Angeles area to make a fortune as a salvager. He did pretty well for himself, staking a pretty good underwater claim in what used to be Brentwood, but quickly established himself as a better arbitrator than salvager. He enjoyed dealing with people more than he enjoyed diving and interacting with fish. Even-handed and not afraid of a fight, he dispenses justice among the legitimate, licensed Los Angeles salvage companies and individuals. Claim jumpers know him to be a harsh but fair Marshall. Appearance: A big man with dark black skin. Blacker robes. Underneath, black clothes and a wicked automatic weapon (which he almost never has to draw).
Dr. Jennifer Blanchard	Blanchard is the doctor aboard the experimental space station you reach and board in Act 3. She's waited all her life to make a trek into space and she' not happy about the way it's going, what with a marauding AI taking control. She'll do whatever it takes to restore the mission to its original state. She's quite senior, as space medicine specialists go, and was one of the first people shipped to the station when construction really got underway. Among other things, she can implant what appears to be an alien augmentation artifact in your head (which allows Adam to download himself into your brain - safely). Appearance: Blanchard is attractive in a clean and wholesome sort of way, with short-cut brown hair and fine features. Under ordinary circumstances, she, like everyone on the station, wears a pristine one-piece, zippered jumpsuit, giving no indication of rank but revealing immediately the job function of the person wearing it. Medical personnel wear aqua (the official scrubs color of hospitals everywhere, even in space...). If the situation gets dicey she dons a futuristic (from 1997 perspective) spacesuit that reveals nothing about her looks, rank or appearance.
Dr. Harry Chiang, Physicist	An experimental physicist on board the space station Helios, Chiang is a Majestic 12 guy and has been for some time. He's not a bad man, just a misguided one who believes mankind needs strong leadership and a world government if it is to survive. He knows some of what's going on but not all. He has an intensely practical side that has two effects on the story: First, he's into more than just theory and has a solid working knowledge of high explosives; second, he may believe in the idea of centralized rule but he'll be damned if he wants a !@#%# machine running things. He'll come to your aid in a heartbeat. Appearance: A small, dark-haired, dark-eyed man from what used to be Taiwan, Chiang wears the white jumpsuit of the Helios researcher and has little experience wearing spacesuits, should it come to that.
General Michael "Sharky" D'onofrio	D'Onofrio's in charge of America's armed forces. A paranoid and untrusting man, especially given the situation and the setting. After you win Sharky's confidence he tries to issue commands to you, as if you were one of his soldiers. Appearance: A stocky bearded man in full military regalia. Lotsa lettuce.
Stanton Dowd	At one time one of the five-member ruling council of the Illuminati, Dowd was an old man when he was ousted by Majestic 12 in their unexpected coup. He is now an ancient man but still has fire in his eyes and in his belly. Since Majestic 12 successfully kicked the Illuminati from power he has endeavored to fight them in all their incarnations. He is in battle-torn Austin acting as the commanding officer of the defending US/Texan forces. He doesn't take any crap - his words are crisp, his sentences terse, and he makes you feel like he belongs in charge. He's a natural born leader, demanding respect. He has an intense hatred for Majestic 12 and, once you earn his trust, will volunteer enough information about the Illuminati stuff to keep you going (the enemy of your enemy is your friend...) and will tell you anything he can about Majestic 12. Note: Stanton Dowd is not his real name - no one know what that is. He's also had a fair amount of cosmetic surgery so he could continue to lead and active, public life without being hunted down and killed by Majestic 12. Appearance: Physically, Dowd is something like Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars. He looks old, but has a commanding presence and sharp eyes, and wears his adopted uniform stiffly.
Alexei Lyubovich Gagarin	A member of the Russian Defense Ministry, Gagarin is based in a Russian missile complex. He gives you part of the information you need to reprogram the Russian missile Adam plans on launching. Appearance: Mid-20s, uniformed military guy.
Andrew Glick	Glick is a loopy conspiracy nut. He sees conspiracies, government coverups and aleisn everywhere. He's a crabby, disheveled ex-military man whose musculature has atrophied badly. In addition to looking somewhat grotesque, Glick has a serious hygiene problem. He talks like Adam - not the computer in the game, but the cook from Northern Exposure. Think a cross between the Northern Exposure guy and Randy Quaid in Independence Day. Basically, this is not a guy you'd take too seriously under most circumstances. Appearance: A plump guy heading toward fat. Has several interesting moles. If you remove his ever-present, moth-eaten military cap you'll find a scrap of tin-foil designed to prevent mind-control transmissions from penetrating his skull!
Sean Grey	Sean is the ATC obstacle course instructor. He's mostly a source of information and, later in the game, a friend who turns into a foe. He talks you through the obstacle course (i.e., he's the voice you hear during the tutorial). Appearance: Take a generic guy and give him a beard and moustache. This is a guy so non-descript he'd be a piece of cake to imitate, if one had sufficient disguise skills.
Margaret Williams-Hamner	The second woman Vice-President of the United States, Williams-Hamner is as hard as nails and about as sentimental. A graduate of VMI, she rose quickly through the ranks of the US Navy and even more quickly through the political ranks - she moved straight from Virginia governor to Vice-President. Williams Hamner is an astute politician, a phenomenal fund-raiser and a no-nonsense, totally ethical woman whose popularity ensures that she will be the nation's next president IF the nation survives. If you fail to save the President's life in Mt. Weather, she steps up and takes charge in a major way - she was born to lead. Appearance: Think Jessica Lange in conservative business attire.
Michael Hamner	The VP's husband is a lawyer who supported his wife's political aspirations but not to the extent of giving up his law practice.Though not an active member of Majestic 12's leadership, he has represented their interests at times and knows of the group's existence and some of its goals. He's a dupe who discovers too late that he's been used. Appearance: Think Al Gore.
Zachary J. Hunt	Hunt is the Secretary of Defense of the United States of America. But first and foremost, he's a Texan. His political opponents have gone so far as to accuse him of caring more about his home state than he does about his country. There's more than a little truth to that. Though he normally wears an earnest smile to go along with his normally friendly demeanor, he's (understandably) soured by the situation in Texas. He's in no mood to be trifled with. And when he's in such a mood, the ex-Texas Ranger, ex-Marine is a valuable guy to have at your side in a fight, despite his advancing age. The most important thing, from a story standpoint, about Hunt is that, like the President's half-dozen most trusted advisors, he has a minor, but critical, augmentation unlike anyone else's. This one is a highly secure data-storage module that contains the final "key" that unlocks the nuclear launch mechanism. The reader for this module is found in Mt. Weather, and nowhere else. (Though there's rumored to be a backup reader somewhere, no one in the story has any idea where it is...) For Majestic 12 to pull of its plan, they need to get Hunt or, at least, his module to Mt. Weather along with the rest of the government leaders. The fact that he was able to slip out of Washington and get to Texas threw Majestic 12 a major curve... Hunt is an intelligent man who usually listens to reason. However, your far-fetched story about secret societies and schemes to assassinate the entire government in one fell swoop doesn't fly until you allow him to see through your datalink (the way you did with Dr. Reyes). Show him what's up and he's completely helpful. He's a good, compassionate person and a competent Secretary of Defense (albeit a bit given to impulse, particularly where the neck he's sticking out is his own). All in all, the key of guy you want back in power. Appearance: Hunt has a huge head capped with salt-and-pepper hair, more gray than black these days. His hands also seem out-sized and when you shake hands with him, his grip enfolds your whole hand. Hunt is never without his Lyndon Johnson style cowboy hat, whether in military garb or conservative business suit.
Henry Jeffries	Orbital Solutions scientist, helps you build the device you need to get into the outer airlock once you get to the Helios space station. Based in the Orbital Solutions R&D center near Cape Canaveral. This guy's been in the space industry forever and doesn't hesitate to dispense wordly wisdom about everything from life to love to rockets. The younger guys are sick of it but he's almost always right. Appearance: Older guy, white hair, white mustache, white lab coat. Pocket protector.
Mark Keyes	Keyes is an agent assigned to the communications center of a small regional ATC office. He helps J.C. establish the location of three augmented carrier-agents Adam is using to move himself around. He knows how the homing beacons in these agents operate. This guy's a career agent, going nowhere and knows it. Paranoid. Sees the chance to get in on a big operation as his ticket out of his current rut. He's wrong. Appearance: Mid-30's, totally non-descript. The kind of guy you'd pass on the street and never notice. Perfect serial killer.
Al Killian	Evan Santo's assistant. He's dead when you find him but, even in death, he may provide some clues. Appearance: No telling what this guy looked like in life - he's a bloated, gaseous corpse when you discover him.
Tom Landing	Landing's an Orbital Solutions launch specialist who he helps you program the cargo vessel you use to reach the Helios space station Sarcastic, witty, sharp as a tack. Closet rock n roller rebellious guy. Appearance: Insists on wearing band t-shirts under his regulation lab coat.
Robert Leung	Leung is responsible for bringing money-grubbing salvagers - pirates, really - into the idyllic place known as The Retreat. This situation has made him a very nervous man. When he speaks to you, he spends most of his time anguishing over his mistakes and pouring out admissions of guilt that hardly match his "crimes." He begs pathetically for your help in getting rid of the scavengers he brought into The Retreat to help defray the costs of keeping the place going (but who now threaten its very existence). He's afraid he's doomed the place in a misguided attempt to save it. If you see him around any of the other citizens of The Retreat, he gets all shifty-eyed and tries to escape conversation ("Busy, busy... got to get back to work..."). He doesn't want you spilling the beans about his involvement in The Retreat's problems. When cornered in public, he fidgets and stammers. If you help him, he gets all apologetic and urges you to keep the whole sordid story between the two of you... Appearance: Leung is a well-dressed, middle-aged man of unknown Oriental descent. His face is etched with lines of worry and the bags under his eyes are evidence of his restless nights.
Jacques Marnier	Once an Illuminati leader, now a dead body. Appearance: He should look kind of emaciated and blue and stiff. The around around his skull implant scar should be kind of puckered. Not to get too morbid, I'm seeing Rock Hudson as he looked when he appeared on the Doris Day show before he announced he had AIDS - a guy who was once a strapping, vital guy but lost it toward the end.
Mort McTavish	Another ex-Illuminati guy, McTavish has given up and now lives in the undersea area of sunken Los Angeles known as The Retreat. McTavish appears calm and relaxes, but that's really just the outward manifestation of the fact that he's a beaten man just waiting to die. He wants nothing more than to be left alone and speaks of the state of the world above water with bitterness punctuated by soft laughter. He'll tell you anything you want to know just so you'll go away and leave him alone. Appearance: McTavish is a tell, pudgy man with disheveled blonde hair sticking up in all directions.
Philip Riley Mead	The President of the United States isn't by nature a dour man but when you meet him in Mt. Weather, Mead is not happy about the state of the nation. He's also not happy about being held prisoner by people he thought were his friends and political allies. He's especially unhappy that his wife and children are threatened too. From Majestic 12's perspective, Mead is important as both a symbol of the nation's stability (meaning they're rather co-opt him than kill him) and as the keeper of a portion of the nuclear "key." Mead, like his advisors, has an augmentation unlike anyone else's, a highly secure data-storage module that contains a portion of the code-key that unlocks the nuclear launch mechanism. Mead is an intelligent man, a good, compassionate person, but not an inspirational leader. (Many of his colleagues in Mt. Weather wonder if the situation might not have come to a head if a more charismatic, forceful man had been in office.) Though not perfect, Mead is the kind of guy you want in power - though he may never lead the nation to glory, neither is he likely to lead it too far astray in a vain attempt to secure his place in history. Appearance: Mead is, well, presidential. Tall, in reasonably good shape, great posture. Smiles a lot. Has hair that's just graying at the temples. Wears the garb of the professional politician, circa 2052. Has a penchant for loud ties and socks.
Philip Mead II	The First Son is seven years old and a real handful. A total surprise, given his parents' age, he's been pretty spoiled. Rambunctious, curious, intelligent but not always sensible, he has a tendency to wander off and get himself in trouble. He loves computers and can't wait to get a body mod, something his parents assure him he will never get... Appearance: Shorts and t-shirt kind of kid (think Gap Kids), Phil Jr. is a kid with a cowlick that never stays in place and always has dirt under his fingernails.
Rachel Mead	The First Lady is a strong woman who, like so many women before her, gave up a career (as a university professor of history) to support her husband in his political aspirations. Her background can provide lots of clues into the genesis and history of secret societies like the Illuminati and its arms and off-shoots. Appearance: Mary McDonnell in Independence Day.
Sarah Mead	The First Daughter is seventeen and almost as much of a handful as her brother. As much as one can, given her station in life, she sneaks off with boys, smokes a little dope, flirts with the Secret Service guys. A real pain. Appearance: Mila Jovovich on a good day...
Jerry Monroe	You meet Jerry in The Retreat. He's almost always in the presence of Mort McTavish, a man he worships for his seeming serenity and patience. Jerry spends his days lifting weights. He's a gentle giant but he's also fiercely, almost childishly devoted to the peace and sanctity of The Retreat and the person he feels more represents those qualities - Mort McTavish. When McTavish and/or the sanctity of the place he loves is threatened, he gets angry; and, when angry, you have to wonder if even a bullet from an elephant gun would stop him... He almost always has a set of weights in hand which, if necessary he can use as a weapon (not that he really needs one...) Jerry is silent to the point that many in The Retreat, despite its small size, believe him to be mute. (He isn't - he's just deaf in one ear and nearly so in the other. Besides, he doesn't have much to say.) Appearance: Jerry is a huge man, better than seven feet tall and well-muscled. There's no telling how old he is - could be 20, could be mid-40's. Cross Andre the Giant with Lou Ferrigno and you've got it.
Nigel Naismith	Known as "Nige," Naismith is hiding out in the London undercity. He was once a ruling member of the Illuminati, but now he's a bit nutes. His face twitches uncontrollably. Despite his quirks, he's a very successful purveyor of black market weapons and gadgets and, as such, can be quite useful. He also has a lot of useful information about Majestic 12 and life in the underground. Buy his wares and/or offer him sufficient exotic food items and he'll spill his guys on most any topic. Most of what he says will even be true. Appearance: Naismith has a long face with a bulbous nose and defeat in his eyes. His face and balding pate are smeared with dirt, and he wears a tattered, dity, once-expensive conservative 3-piece suit. Oddly for someone living among scroungers in an underground community of mole people, he looks surprisingly plump.
Dr. Nikolai Nickolaievich Vranski	A Russian space scientist with a strong patriotic streak, Vranski is appalled at the state of his country. It infuriates him to see the Russo-Mexican ruffians - goddamned drug dealers - operating in the open, with no opposition from the elected government. And Vranski in a rage is something to see. Vranski is kind of rumpled and given to drinking too much vodka but he can be a holy terror. His tirades are loud and long. If he had his druthers, he'd probably support a return to the old Soviet Socialist way of doing things but anyone who opposes the RMA and has the support of the government is treated like a long lost friend. Having a couple of drinks with him - while it may not do anything for your performance - will win him over completely. Appearance: Think Boris Yeltsin in a lab coat.
Phibes	Phibes is one of the loonies you meet in the Majestic 12 psychiatric facility when you go to rescue Paul. Though he's now out and about, he's still a loony when you encounter him in the undercity of London (assuming you set him free in your first encounter...) He has a habit of raising his arms and waving them wildly, for no reason at all. He tends to run everywhere he goes, and is convinced that he's "Phibes, manservant to the Majestic Alliance." There are times when he seems totally clued in on what Majestic 12 is up to and other times when he's just totally wrong. He can point out "The Grand Vizier" (actually Nigel), if you persist in conversation with him. Appearance: He's very long-limbed and skinny. Looks like an india rubber man at the circus sideshow. No body hair at all, bulging eyes too big for an emaciated face dominated by a BIG nose. Filthy clothes, filthy face.
Jim Phifer	A guard at the front gate of Austin's Capital building, Jim is silent and won't make eye contact until you show him the locket you got from Anna Pruett. Upon seeing the locket, he gets all mushy and asks questions and offers to let you in if you agree to take her a message. Appearance: Jim is a strong-jawed kid (maybe 18...). He's tall and thin, with sinewy muscles and leathery skin despite his youth - a real Texas rancher type. As a volunteer he doesn't wear a uniform except, possibly, the cowboy hat, big belt buckle and pointy boots of the urban cowboy.
Anna Pruett	Anna is a homeless Austinite displaced by the war. She's the one who gives you the locket to give to Jim Phifer, which will get you in the capitol gate. She carries on about wanting to see Jim. She's on the other side of the front, and can't get to the capitol. A little food makes her more than a little grateful - she has a mother to feed... Anna's one of those people who seem to good to be true but both good and true. You just want to protect her. Appearance: Anna is pretty, though dirty, a little too thin and dressed in rags. She has big puppy dog eyes. Think supermodel waif, maybe Kate Moss...
Gilbert Renton	A waterfront saint, Renton makes a meager living running a flop house hotel in New York's Battery Park district. But his true vocation is saving the world, or at least the piece of it in which he lives. He truly believes he can make a difference in the loves of forgotten, downtrodden people in a deserted ubran ghetto. He's completely misguided but unshakable in his faith. The guy may be self-deluding but he knows just about everything legal that goes on in this area. Until J.C. gets into a shooting situation, Renton will be happy to spill his guys about anyone and everyone in the neighborhood. Appearance: Picture the most evangelical, crazy-ass preacher in the world and take the religion out of him. He's a conservative dresser favoring plain black suits but his garb stands in marked contrast to everything else about him - he's a wild-eyed, enthusiastic, fellow who almost froths at the mouth when he gets going on a subject he's passionate about (which is nearly all the time). Fred Thompson could have played him (before he left Hollywood for Washington...)
Sandra Renton	Sandra is Gilbert Renton's daughter. She doesn't want to live in New York, but she has no choice - without her, her father wouldn't survive ten minutes. He'd give away all his money, forget to eat, wouldn't ever sleep ("Not so long as one soul remains in need of my assistance!"). She's too young to be living this kind of life and no longer as innocent as she deserves to be. She's seen too much. She may even have a nasty drug habit, something her save-the-world father is too busy to notice. Appearance: Fiona Apple on a bad day. Emaciated, depressed, living from minute to minute, expecting nothing from life other than to be her father's companion and helper. Shapeless, non-descript dresses conceal a waiflike body. The heroin-chic look but all for the wrong reasons.
Sal	Sal is the bodyguard of Robert Leung, business manager of The Retreat. He's a crazy survivalist and a grumpy guy who doesn't like strangers - they always make his work that much harder... If you save his life, he tells you not to think he owes you a favor - he's ready to die. Appearance: Sal is short, stocky and well-muscled. He dresses the part of the survivalist to the hilt - military gear, beret, combat boots... He bristles with weapons almost to the point where it's humorous. (He's the only non-salvage guy who does wear weapons, in fact.) Imagine Bob Hoskins if he worked out for a solid year.
Evan Santo	The Retreat's handyman, Santo is a trained engineer who feigns being just a guy with a tool belt and exposed butt crack. Burly and gruff, under ordinary circumstances, he's pretty weak when you find him. (He's been through an underwater submarine crash and has been incarcerated by Keisha for some time.) Appearance: Big and gruff with large hands that prove surprisingly soft and dexterous. He's never without his tool belt. Like many in The Retreat, he rarely wears more clothes than he has to - it's not like there's any sun or cold to protect oneself again.
Jordie "Mixer" Shea	A big, bruising bartender who's lived and worked in New York's Battery Park area since he was a kid, like his father before him and his father before him. He mixes a mean drink, knows when to slip a trouble-making drunk a mickey and keeps a BIG metal bat behind the bar for emergencies. Oh, and there's the little matter of some brawling augmentations and a primitive skull gun for when the action gets truly serious. He knows plenty about who's doing what to whom and is the best source of information about illegal goings on in this area. He'll talk, as long as you bribe him and then keep buying (and drinking) his watered down liquor. Stop drinking, he stops talking - very dangerous down here. Of course, if you can best him in a brawl he'll talk, too... Appearance: Big, scarred, brute of a man. His augmentations are low, low grade. Scarring is terrible and his brawling arms are poorly disguised prostheses - not the elegant, internal upgrades J.C. and the ATC augmented agents have.
Lisa Shepard	Shepard, an environmental specialist aboard the Helios, is a brusque, no-nonsense woman who's appalled when she discovered the station was to have been used by Majestic 12 in military/rule the world ventures. She's even more appalled when she learns the station is under the control of a computer! Mostly, however, she's concerned about the family she left down on Earth. What will they do if she never returns?... Appearance: Shepard's a woman just entering middle age but not quite looking like it yet. Call it a very well-preserved late-30's. She wears the white jumpsuit of a station researcher.
Walton "Bud" Simons	The Texas capitol's chief of security. This guy's in his mid-40's, a grizzled army veteran. He ought to be a leader but never wanted the responsibility. He seems friendly enough - and is - but you don't want to get on his bad side. When he gets angry, his eyes take on a shark-like quality that signals imminent violence. When he gets that look in his eyes, someone pays. Usually, someone dies. He's never without his gun though you get the feeling he'd almost rather kill an enemy with his bare hands. Bud is suspicious of almost everyone, not a bad quality in a security chief. Appearance: Simons is tall, thin, with prominent, angular features and dark brown hair that's long in the back but short on top and sides. He eschews uniforms in favor of jeans and casual shirts, favoring dark colors.
The Smuggler	Ask this guy his name and he'll just say "You don't need to know." Best to leave it at that. This guy isn't a bad sort - he's just trying to make a living providing goods and services to people who can't get stuff through normal channels anymore. He doesn't break the law...much. Okay, so he breaks the law all the time, but it's in a good cause. Appearance: Who knows? This guy seems like a vampire. He stays to the shadows. You never get a good look at him. Turn your back on him and he's gone when you turn back to face him. Weird, mysterious, eerie. Is he real? Is he human?
Dr. Joseph Stoneham	Stoneham is a senior guy at Orbital Solutions. He's always known about Majestic 12 but has lived in denial as they've taken more and more daily control of Orbital Solutions' business. Still, working for whackos who want to rule the world seemed a small price to pay for the privilege of working in a lab with seemingly unlimited funding, unlimited resources and no deadlines. Still, the knowledge that a nearly omnipotent machine may soon be in charge spurs him to help you. He's kind of a cave-dweller who reacts badly to bright lights. He sees no point in using a one syllable word when a three syllable one is available. Appearance: Prematurely white-haired and given to lab coats and pocket-protects, Stoneham is stoop-shouldered and thin. He's obviously spent too much time alone, in the dark, peering through his half-glasses at the computer screens or at the view screen of electron microscopes.
Beth Sung	Beth is already dead when the player finds her. She was an Illuminati boss, and after the fall, watched with Majestic 12's movements in Washington, DC with intense paranoia, convinced that they were looking for her all the while. Turns out she was right Appearance: Beth is (was) a tiny Chinese woman whose face looks hunted even in death.
Dr. Farley Tananbaum	Tananbaum is one of Tracer Tong's competitors. He's good - good enough that Tong sends you to him when you need a quick augmentation - but not nearly as good as Tong is himself. He's got a terrific front operation, practicing legitimate medicine, but in the back, he plays with space age toys that could get him locked up for decades. Appearance: Marcus Welb, the black marketeer. Kindly, father-figure, graying, smiling, etc.
Jeff Tilson and Ghoul	These guys are listed together because they're seldom apart. They're a couple of wacky survivalist holed up underneath the battlezone around the Capitol of Texas, waiting out the crisis. Tilson's the guy who goes outside and "restocks" supplies with one-man raids on Russo-Mexicans. He is an ex-military guy clinging, barely, to sanity. Ghoul is a nerd who gets off on tech and whose real name is never spoken. He's good at siphoning electricity and such for the "bunker" he shares with his buddy, Tilson. Ghoul is really into the survival thing, too, but is too fat and lazy to help with Tilson's raid. He's less communicative; he just wants you out of the bunker, unless you've got a ho-ho. Appearance: Tilson is wild-eyed, with long, stringy red hair. He's waging a losing war against baldness. He has a wiry build and looks completely non-threatening until he starts wildly gesturing and waving his rusty guns around. Ghoul is pale-skinned, flabby, greasy-haired and bespectacled - kind of like the molemen from Marvel comics...
Jonathan Turner	A NASA employee at Cape Canaveral, Turner is the ultimate by-the-book bureaucrat. What a pain in the neck! Won't take a bathroom break unless someone fills in form (in triplicate) authorizing him to do so. Even his voice is annoying - whiny, nasal, high-pitched. Not a bad man, but frustrating as hell. Appearance: Think Wally Cox as Mr. Peepers.
Pesky Press Guys	Reporters may be pesky but they're also pretty darn useful and no conspiracy story would be complete without them. For one thing, publicity is the enemy conspiracy. For another, press guys have information about all sorts of stuff the player might find useful. Finally, the press guys could talk about weird attempts to control the news. ("I wrote a story about government corruption but it came out in praise of the president! Somebody high up doesn't want to rock the boat!" Oress guys under the control of conspirators can play a similar role but with an entirely different spin: They can introduce (rather than uncover) disinformation campaigns. For example, you should know first-hand that Majestic 12 guys were involved in a drug deal gone bad but the TV reports all come out blaming RMA with no mention of ATC or Majestic 12.

Skills

This section, along with some augmentations, are dated 1/23/98 v1.1.

Bio-technical Science (Augmentations & Implants)

Tool Dependent	Specialized tools at lower levels, advanced surgical tools (see Tracer Tong's hideout) at high levels.
Description	Allows player to repair and maintain augmentations and implants. (works just like the healing skill, but on non-organic body parts)
Level Zero (untrained)
Level One (skilled)
Level Two (advanced)	Player can replace his augmentations with better ones he recovers during play.
Level Three (master)	Can design and install his own implants. (Tracer Tong is a master)

Computer

Tool Dependent	requires software/debugging kit
Description	Measures savvy with computers, from personal computers to powerful evil scientist computers.
Level Zero (untrained)	agent can turn on computers, tell when they are not working, and access general menus. An untrained agent would click on a computer and get only the most basic menus.
Level One (skilled)	agent can access more menus and get additional information from computers. A skilled agent would click on a computer and get basic menus, plus additional options such as security overrides.
Level Two (advanced)	agent can crash the system, causing anything associated with the computer to cease working. An agent with computer at this level would click on the computer and get basic menus, additional options, security overrides, and a "crash" option.
Level Three (master)	agent can write programs to get the computer to do things other users could not do. An agent operating at this level would click on a computer and get basic menus, additional options, security overrides, a "crash" option, and a "rewrite" option in which he gets to choose what he wants the computer to do: shut off lights, unlock or lock doors, trigger or shut off fire alarm, etc.

Demoliton

Tool Dependent	Explosives required. Timer
Description	This skill covers the agent's competency in using all explosives, including dynamite, plastic explosives, and nitroglycerin.
Level Zero (untrained)	agent can light dynamite.
Level One (skilled)	agent can use plastic explosives, but cannot shape charges; he could blow open a safe, but not protect its contents.
Level Two (advanced)	agent can shape charges; he knows just how much to use to blow up a safe without destroying its contents.
Level Three (master)	agent can build improvised timers by using any timekeeper with explosives.

Healing

Tool Dependent	Requires first aid kit, bandages, or other healing devices
Description	Healing restores hit points to an agent. The agent can heal himself or others using this skill.
Level Zero (untrained)	Agent will get 20% of the maximum number of hit points a tool can heal.
Level One (skilled)	Agent will get 50% of the maximum hit points a tool can heal.
Level Two (advanced)	Agent will get 75% of the maximum hit points a tool can heal.
Level Three (master)	Agent will get 100% of the maximum hit points a tool can heal.

Interrogation

Automatic	Functions when the character is in a conversation.
Description	Allows the player to learn information during a conversation that one without this skill would not see.
Level Zero (untrained)	Normal conversation.
Level One (skilled)	Minor hints and clues can be discovered.
Level Two (advanced)	Moderate hints and clues can be discovered.
Level Three (master)	Major hints and clues can be discovered.

Language (Russian, Chinese, etc, PC starts as Master in English)

Automatic	Affects conversations
Description	Each of these languages has one skill assigned to it.
Level Zero (untrained)	agent cannot speak, read, or understand the language.
Level One (skilled)	agent can speak, read, and understand basic elements of the language; he can ask for directions, but detailed information will be lost on him.
Level Two (advanced)	agent can speak, read, and understand the language, but speaks it with an accent.
Level Three (master)	agent is fluent in the language and speaks it without an accent.

Lock picking

Tool Dependent	Requires lockpick, paper clip, listening devices.
Description	Player can defeat locks without having the proper key or combination.
Level Zero (untrained)	Without the key, forget it.
Level One (skilled)	Low security locks (doorknob, filing cabinet, bus station locker) can be defeated with the proper tools.
Level Two (advanced)	Medium security locks (wall safe, evidence room) can be defeated with the proper tools.
Level Three (master)	High security locks (bank vault, airlock, missile lunching controls) can be defeated with the proper tools.

Sharp shooting: Pistol

Tool Dependent	Requires pistol or handgun.
Description	measure's agent's accuracy with pistol
Level Zero (untrained)	if aiming at a person, damage is spread out equally among all body parts.
Level One (skilled)	agent's hit location is randomly determined, but weighted away from head; full damage applied to hit location.
Level Two (advanced)	agent hits the body part he is aiming at.
Level Three (master)	agent can hit critical points at any target or location; does double damage. Also, agent can hit objects out of a target's hand

Sharp shooting: Rifle

Tool Dependent	Requires rifle or assault weapon.
Description	measures agent's accuracy with rifle.
Level Zero (untrained)	if aiming at a person, damage is spread out equally among all parts.
Level One (skilled)	agent's hit location is randomly determined, but weighted away from head; full damage applied to hit location.
Level Two (advanced)	agent hits the body part he is aiming at.
Level Three (master)	agent can hit critical points at any target or location; does double damage. Also, agent can hit objects out of a target's hand.

Stealth

Automatic	Used whenever a player is moving.
Description	An agent trained in stealth can move more silently and less conspicuously than other.
Level Zero (untrained)	agent gets no stealth bonus.
Level One (skilled)	Agent can pass within twenty feet of an average NPC without being detected.
Level Two (advanced)	Agent can pass within ten feet of an average NPC without being detected.
Level Three (master)	Agent is all but undetectable unless in line-of-sight of NPC. When runnning, agent makes noise equivalent to a skilled agent walking.

Other

The following skills have no other info other than their names:

• Thief
• Medical Examiner
• Electronic
• Weapons defense
• Security
• Reconnoiter
• Counter intelligence
• Communication
• Disguise
• Awareness
• Command
• Deception
• Tech
• Pilot

Augmentations

Aqualung Implant

Description	Your lungs are lined with a synthetic material that will extract oxygen from water.
Hot Spot	Lung
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	You can't breathe underwater.
Feedback	You take damage after 10 seconds underwater.
Level One	You can breathe underwater for up to 2 minutes. After that time you will start to take damage. There is no recharge time with this system. (Times are best guess. Balance in testing)
Feedback	You breathe underwater for some time before taking damage. We may want to place a timer bar on screen.
Level Two	You can breathe underwater for up to 5 minutes. After that time you will start to take damage. There is no recharge time with this system. (Times are best guess. Balance in testing)
Feedback	You breathe underwater for some time before taking damage. We may want to place a timer bar on screen.
Level Three	You can breathe underwater for up to 8 minutes. After that time you will start to take damage. There is no recharge time with this system. (Times are best guess. Balance in testing)
Feedback	You breathe underwater for some time before taking damage. We may want to place a timer bar on screen.

Aggressive Defense System

Description	A smart laser in an agent's chest that will identify when a weapon was fired, determine the projectile's trajectory, and attempt to destroy the projectile before it hits the agent. Has a fifty percent chance of working and can only dismantle one attack per game second. Only works with high-velocity attacks such as bullets and missiles.
Hot Spot	Chest
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	You have no aggressive defense system
Feedback	projectiles hurt player normally.
Level One	your ADS has a fifty percent change of stopping one projectile per game second.
Feedback	HUD flashes "ADS activated" and you see a small laser blast. Instant-hit projectiles which are stopped show a generic laser and explosion before you. Missiles show laser hitting missile.

Atmospheric Reservoir

Description	Small air canisters are implanted within the lower 25% of the patient's lungs. These canisters are able to hold varying amount of aia and are recharged by normal breathing. This allows you to breathe in low oxygen or soft vacuum conditions.
Hot Spot	Lung
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	You have no implants. No air and you will take damage immediately.
Feedback	You take damage from suffocation immediately.
Level One	You are able to breathe off internal reserves for 1 minute. There is a 3-minute recharge time to refresh the internal tanks. (Times are guesses and will need to be balance in testing)
Feedback	You take no effect from low oxygen levels for the 1 minute. You take damage normally after that. (We may want to place a timer on screen)
Level Two	You are able to breathe off internal reserves for 3 minute. There is a 2-minute recharge time to refresh the internal tanks. (Times are guesses and will need to be balance in testing)
Feedback	You take no effect from low oxygen levels for the 3 minutes. You take damage normally after that. (We may want to place a timer on screen)
Level Three	You are able to breathe off internal reserves for 5 minute. There is a 1-minute recharge time to refresh the internal tanks. (Times are guesses and will need to be balance in testing)
Feedback	You take no effect from low oxygen levels for the 5 minute. You take damage normally after that. (We may want to place a timer on screen)

Chemical Analysis Implant

Description	Sensors are implanted in the patient's nose and mouth, allowing you to analyze most substances within a few seconds. Data can be stored in the Data Vault and retrieved by control later.
Hot Spot	Mouth
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	You can only get basic information. It's liquid or a solid, it's a chemical or not.
Feedback	Just basic information available from looking at the object.
Level One	You are able to analyze materials by tasting or sniffing various compounds.
Feedback	Chemical analysis is returned in HUD. If compound isn't possible to analyze a not that it matches no material type in the database is returned.
Level Two	Compound Database in increased. This allows you to analyze more materials successfully.
Feedback	You can analyze most compounds now. Any compound that can't be analyzed should result in a message in the HUD that telling you that it is impossible to analyze.

Cybernetic Movement Augmentation

Description	This augmentation strengthens mostly leg muscles to allow the character to travel at faster than normal speeds. It does not affect other abilities; in much the same way that a springer may not necessarily be a great long jumper, the specific muscles targeted generate an appreciable bonus only in movement speed.
Hot Spot	Leg
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	You are as slow as any normal person.
Feedback	None
Level One	Your movement rates are increased by 25%
Feedback	You move faster.
Level Two	Your movement rates are increased by 50%
Feedback	You move faster still.

Data Vault Recorder

Description	This is the standard issue Data Vault. It is a recording device implanted into the skull and wired to the areas of the brain that receive sensory information. It allows you to store notes, maps, and relevant information within you. It is also possible to download data directly to this system through the Mind Vault Datalink ™
Hot Spot	Brain (reserved hot spot)
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	N/A You start with this implant
Feedback	N/A You start with this implant
Level One	Allows you to store mission-relevant information in an internal storage medium. This allows you to store reference notes, maps, and other mission relevant data. ATC or Tong can download and retrieve information from this system through the Data Vault.
Feedback	Note screen is available, as are maps.

Jump Augmentation System

Description	Synthetic muscle is grafted onto your own muscle layer, normally in the legs. This has the effect of increasing the distance you can jump.
Hot Spot	Leg
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	You can jump only the normal distance
Feedback	No special feedback other then normal jumping
Level One	You are able to jump 25% further then normal.
Feedback	jump distance is increased
Level Two	You are able to jump 50% further then normal.
Feedback	jump distance is increased even more

Light Magnification Implants

Description	An implant consisting of delicate light enhancement electronics.(Generally brighten the screen)
Hot Spot	Eye
Type	Toggle
Level Zero	You are blind in the dark.
Feedback	You treat dark areas as normal.
Level One	As long as the area is affected by some light, the light level is increased by 50 percent. (Brighten the screen gamma?)
Feedback	You can see in areas that are otherwise nearly totally dark.

Magnified Hearing

Description	Your inner and middle ear have been replaced with advanced electronics that allow you to hear things at a magnified level.
Hot Spot	Ear
Type	Toggle
Level Zero	You have normal hearing. No charge.
Feedback	You hear things as normal.
Level One	Your hearing range is increased by 25%. This will allow you to overhear loud conversations taking place nearby. (Just play the sound files as long as you are in range.)
Feedback	You can hear things from further away
Level Two	Your hearing range is increased by 50%.
Feedback	You can hear things from further away.

Microfibral Muscle Enhancement

Description	Small strands of chemically reactive fibers are implanted within your muscles. These fibers react to the chemical change in the muscles and contract to 1/3 of their resting length. In effect this increases your physical strength.
Hot Spot	Arm
Type	Automaticc
Level Zero	You are only of normal strength.
Feedback	None
Level One	You can slide large or heavy objects. Throwing range is increased by 25%
Feedback	If object can't be moved, you should be informed in the HUD that an object is either too heavy to move at this level of augmentation or that it is impossible to move.
Level Two	You can lift large or heavy objects. Throwing Range is increased by 50%.
Feedback	If object can't be moved, you should be notified that object is impossible to move in the HUD.

Mind Vault Datalink

Description	This is the standard issue Datalink used by ATC.
Hot Spot	Brain (reserved hot spot)
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	Allows you to be contacted by ATC Control during missions. ATC can track the location and general physical condition of you through the datalink. ATC can also download information directly into the Data Vault Implant.
Feedback	Communications are always started from the ATC side. You cannot initiate communication.
Level One	Tong adapts the implant to remove the tracking and status functions from the implant. This Allows you to move about without alerting ATC or MJ-12 to his location through it.
Feedback	Communication is always started by someone other than you. You cannot initiate conversations.

Retractable Claws

Description	Small retractable claws are implanted in the hands, allowing for greater damage in hand-to-hand combat.
Hot Spot	Arm
Type	Toggle
Level Zero	No claws. No effect.
Feedback	No effect.
Level One	Hand to Hand damage is increased by 25%
Feedback	You do more damage in hand to hand.

Sound Dampener

Description	Your inner and middle ear have been replaced with advanced electronics that dampen dangerously loud noises, such as those made by sonic grenades.
Hot Spot	Ear
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	Your ear's natural defenses are all you have.
Feedback	You hear loud noises normally.
Level One	You take 50% of the normal damage from sound-related weaponry or loud noises.
Feedback	When dangerously loud noises are heard, the sound is filtered out and a small message is flashed in the HUD to inform you the sound dampers have been activated
Level Two	You take 25% of the normal damage from sound or sound-related weaponry.
Feedback	When dangerously loud noises are heard, the sound is filtered out and a small message is flashed in the HUD to inform you the sound dampers have been activated
Level Three	The sound dampening system is now able to filter out all dangerously loud noises.
Feedback	When dangerously loud noises are heard, the sound is filtered out and a small message is flashed in the HUD to inform you the sound dampers have been activated

Spider Grip Augmentation

Description	Small hair-like structures are implanted on the patient's palms. These hairs are similar to the hairs spiders use to walk on vertical and horizontal surfaces. However the surface area to body mass ratio is significantly worse in humans, resulting in only a slight increase in the ability to climb vertical services.
Hot Spot	Arm
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	Use a rope.
Feedback	None
Level One	You are able to climb vertical surfaces. In effect this augmentation allows you to assume that he has a rope or other tool for the climbing skill.
Feedback	You can climb even without a rope.

Subdermal Plates

Description	High-tech plastic plates under the skin which protect against serious injury. Agent can pass through metal detectors, and dermal plates are only added where clothes can cover them, as bulges can sometimes give them away. Protects everything but attacks aimed at the head.
Hot Spot	Skin
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	Your skin is normal. No effect.
Feedback	None
Level One	Your armored skin provides you with a level of protection equivalent to a kevlar vest, but all over your body.
Feedback	Damage effects are reduced.

Temperature-Resistant skin, Heat or Cold

Description	A special skin treatment that protects you from extreme temperatures. There are two types of temperature-resistant skin, one for hot temperatures and one for cold; each provideds no protection from the other extreme. A Heat-resistant skin treatment would protect from fire, but not from freezing temperatures, and vice-versa.
Hot Spot	Skin
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	no additional protection.
Feedback	You take damage from hot or cold temperatures normally.
Level One	You take 50 % less damage from the protected temperature extreme.
Feedback	HUD display alerts player that temperature-resistant skin is reducing damage.

Thermal Vision Cones

Description	You have had many hundreds of synthetic vision cones added to your retina. These cones allow you to see heat and cold information, once activated (infra-red vision). Heat signatures are visible at three different levels: extremely hot (flames), warm (people and animals), and cold (terrain and objects).
Hot Spot	Eye
Type	Toggle
Level Zero	You can't see heat signatures.
Feedback	You see normally.
Level One	You can see Infrared and heat data.
Feedback	You see the world in heat levels. People and objects appear as red outlines, flames appear bright white, and walls and terrain are cold blue.

Tissue Growth Stim

Description	This is a collection of biorepair agents suspended within your bloodstream.
Hot Spot	Chest
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	You heal damage only with a medkit.
Feedback	None
Level One	You heal damage at the rate of 1% every 1 minute. (Amount and time is arbitrary.)
Feedback	You heal damage.
Level Two	You heal damage at the rate of 1% every 30 seconds. (Amount and time is arbitrary.)
Feedback	You heal damage.
Level Three	You heal damage at the rate of 1% every 15 seconds. (Amount and time is arbitrary.)
Feedback	You heal damage.

Toxin Filter

Description	Allows you to survive exposure to environmental and chemical toxins for extended periods of time by separating toxins from the air.
Hot Spot	Lung
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	Your ability to withstand toxins is normal. Without an antidote you are going to die.
Feedback	Print warning in HUD, to warn you of toxins in environment. Perhaps clut the screen to some appropriate color.
Level One	You can without environmental toxins for 30 seconds before adverse effects start. System takes 5 minutes to reset and clean the filters. You will get no benefit from the augmentation until the reset and cleaning is finished. (Times are best guess. Balance in testing).
Feedback	You don't suffer any adverse effects within the time limit. We might want to consider placing a timer on screen. (both for benefits and recharge)
Level Two	You can without environmental toxins for 2 minutes before adverse effects start. System takes 2 minutes to reset and recharge the filters. You will get no benefit from the augmentation until recharge is complete. (Times are best guess. Balance in testing).
Feedback	You don't suffer any adverse effects within the time limit. We might want to consider placing a timer on screen. (both for benefits and recharge)
Level Three	You can without environmental toxins for 5 minutes before adverse effects start. System takes 30 seconds to reset and recharge the filters. You will get no benefit from the augmentation until recharge is complete. (Times are best guess. Balance in testing).
Feedback	You don't suffer any adverse effects within the time limit. We might want to consider placing a timer on screen. (both for benefits and recharge)

Voice Stress Analyzer

Description	Allows you to tell when an NPC is being deceptive or deceitful.
Hot Spot	Ear
Type	Automatic
Level Zero	Use you intuition. It's all you have.
Feedback	none
Level One	You is able to analyze most people with this system. Some people are very good at lying. This system may not be able to analyze those people.
Feedback	You sees a readout in the HUD saying either lying or hiding something. If person cannot be read by system (Because they are plot critical to be lying) then you receives a message that system is unable to read target.

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The following augmentations are dated 1/23/98 v1.1.

Agility

Description	An agent trained in agility conditioning.
Level Zero	Agent can jump normally.
Level One	Running leap 1.5 times the normal distance.
Level Two	Standing jump 1.5 times the normal distance, running leap double distance.
Level Three	Standing jump double distance, running leap double distance, reduce falling damage.

Poison Resistance

Description	measures an agent's trained / chemically augmented resistance to poisons.
Level Zero	agent has normal poison resistance and will take full damage.
Level One	agent suffers no damage from weaker poisons
Level Two
Level Three	Agent can resist poisons in the air.

Strength

Description	Allows character to move heavy objects
Level Zero	Can only move standard world objects.
Level One	Can slide heavy objects.
Level Two	Can slide lift and throw heavy objects, slide very heavy objects.
Level Three	Can slide, lift and throw very heavy objects.

Swimming

Description	measure's agent's swimming power, endurance, and ability to stay underwater
Level Zero	Agent swims at ¼ normal movement; cannot swim against current; immediately starts taking damage if swimming underwater
Level One	Agent swims at ½ normal movement; can stay under water 1 minute before taking damage
Level Two	Agent swims at ¾ normal movement; can stay under water 3 minute before taking damage
Level Three	Agent swims at full normal movement; can stay under water 5 minute before taking damage

Speed

Description
Level Zero
Level One
Level Two
Level Three

Climb

Description
Level Zero
Level One
Level Two
Level Three

Items

Guns

Pen Gun seen at the top-middle, possible Stun Gun above the mini-crossbow lower-middle

Name	Description
Stun Gun	A futuristic phaser-looking device. The stun gun operates by delivering a powerful electrical charge to a target within five feet of its muzzle.
.45 Handgun	The .45 caliber handgun is the standard issue for all agents.
ACR-12	The Advance Combat Rifle Mk XII, or ACR-12, is a fully automatic rifle in a small package. The weapon is fed by twin 40 round magazines filled with 9mm caseless ammunition. This is the weapon of choice for agents who know a heavy firefight is imminent.
Sniper Rifle	This rifle fires 7.62 mm ammunition and has long-range accuracy.
GEP Gun	The GEP (Guided Explosive Projectile) gun is a high-tech gun which fires guided missiles. The loaded missile establishes a lock on a target and pursues it until it blows up (similar to the gun Gene Simmons had in Runaway). The GEP gun's slow rate of fire (there's only room for one projectile, so it must be reloaded every time it is fired) and volume make it a weapon to be used only in specialized circumstances; forget about the element of surprise
Pen Gun	Disguised as a pen, the pen gun contains one .22 caliber shot, accurate only at close range. It will pass through metal detectors.

Ammunition

Name	Description
Battery	Powers the stun gun. Allows five stuns before it's exhausted.
.22 clip	clip of six .22 caliber bullets.
.45 clip	clip of ten .45 caliber bullets.
ACR-12 clip	clip of 40 9 mm bullets.
7.62 mm clip	clip of 30 7.62 mm bullets.
GEP	Guided Explosive Projectile; used in the GEP gun.

Other Weapons

Name	Description
Hand Grenade	Pull the pin and throw
Flashlight Grenade	Disguised as a flashlight, it is not as lethal as a hand grenade, but can be carried into places grenades can't go.
Net Gun	This non-lethal, crossbow-like device fire a rapidly expanding net that quickly wraps itself around a target, immobilizing it. The more the target struggles, the more quickly and completely he or she is rendered helpless. It is possible to cut through the web-like netting, but is isn't easy...
Smoke Grenade	Non-lethal, but useful for clouding enemy vision and diffusing lasers.
Tear Gas Canister	Enemies in a tear gas cloud will seek to escape it as their first priority; once out, they can function normally. PC will take temporary damage that heals rapidly after he exits the cloud.
Combat Knife	A Rambo knife. Not terribly discreet, but a good weapon.
Baseball Bat / Club	A nice piece of ash. Bats and clubs behave the same.
Lead Pipe

Standard Equipment

Name	Description
Silencer	Attaches to handguns; good for those times where you need to get rid of someone quietly.
Scope	Attaches to a sniper rifle; magnifies target, thus increasing long-range accuracy.
Laser Sight	Attaches to most guns; apart from looking cool, it aids in aiming.
Scuba Gear	Bulky and un-hideable, scuba gear allows for (in game terms) endless underwater breathing capabilities. Scuba gear cannot be worn with armor, headgear, or footwear.
Earplugs	Block out sound.
Plastic Explosives	A clay-like substance which can be shaped by a skilled agent; used with a detonator, can blow some pretty big holes in some pretty thick doors.
Detonator	Detonates plastic explosive.
Night-Vision Goggles	Bulky eyewear which magnifies existing light.
Electromagnet	Attracts metal objects, even through bars...and it works wonders on magnetic data storage!
Field First-Aid Kit	A stripped-down version of a full kit, this compact case contains everything an agent needs to get him back in action after suffering damage, mild poisoning, etc.
Parabolic Microphone	Smaller in size than its modern counterpart, the parabolic mike allows the user to hear things up to one hundred years away with perfect clarity. Environmental noise reduction isolates the target.
Tool kit	A full-sized tool kit which will allow an agent to do field repairs on everything from a broken bug detector to an autogyro.
Traveling tool kit	The traveling tool kit is a smaller version of the tool kit; an agent can use it at a -25% penalty to do the same repairs the full-size kit does.
Lighter	A Zippo-esque lighter which will stay lit until you use it again, at which point it goes out. It will shed limited light, start things on fire, and will explode if thrown into a fire.
Battering Ram	Usable only by the strongest of characters, a battering ram can be used to hammer down a door or other obstruction.
Datacard	Usale on a door to gain entry. Specific cards grant access to specific doors. A datacard replaces the modern magnetic proximity card. It is credit-card sized.
Fire Extinguisher	When used, it sprays out a white foam which extinguishes fires. It can also provide a smokescreen if used cleverly.

Spy Equipment

Name	Description
Audio Bug	A circular mike and transmitter about 1 cm in diameter, the audio bug is hard to detect with out a bug scanner. It allows an agent to eavesdrop on a conversation remotely.
Bug Scanner	A metal box about the size of a cigarette case. Finds bugs; beeps if one is detected, gets louder as the agent gets closer.
Digital Watch Camera	A cleverly concealed camera which does not require film; an augmented character can download it into his in-skull computer and send it off from there instantly.
Spy Camera	A tiny camera with a 12-exposure roll of film. Has a timer, so it can be left behind to do its work.
Decoder	Six inches by six inches nd two inches thick, a decoder has a scanner on one side which will read encoded text and a display window which will print it out in English on the other side. The catch is that it must be in a code which the agency has already decoded or it prints rubbish (or sometimes false information!)
Microtranslator	The microtranslator is a tiny device containing a microcomputer which will translate any language into English. Effectiveness varies with quality of device but the best translator isn't as good as a human who knows the language - the language learning augmentation is far more effective.
Video Surveillance Detector	Approximately 4 inches by 3 inches by 2 inches in size, this lightweight metal box detects video surveillance devices up to fiftenn feet away.
Disguise Kit	Contains makeup, eyeglasses, fake mustaches & beards, platforms for shoe heels, eye patches; pretty much everything an agent needs to pull off a convincing disguise.
Counterlock Kit	Everything an agent needs to pick a lock, crack a safe, etc.
Plastique Gum/ Detonator Watch	A set consisting of disguised plastique and a detonator. This form of plastique is less than a full charge, so its uses are more limited.
Tracer	A tiny electronic component which is commonly disguised in a coin or pen, the agent cna plant the tracer on the target and monitor his movements on his laptop. Microship versions of these tracers are becoming more widely available, capable of insertion under the skin of the forehead or back of hand. The microchip devices are extremely sensitive to electromagnetic fields and, therefore, less reliable than the older, larger versions.
Voice Synthesizer	A series of tiny electronic components on a choker, the synthesizer is put around a person's neck, then records his speech range. The agent then puts it on himself and the synthesizer stimulates his vocal cords to emulate the recorded voice. The agent can re-record the voice he wishes to emulate in the field.
Spy-Bans	Made to look like fashionable sunglesses, Spy-Bans can be treated to be infrared goggles, or to show metallic substances beneath a person's skin (thus ferreting out rogue augmented agents in diguise), or other cool options.
FastCan	This is a drug capable of causing "fast-acting cancer." It can be delivered orally, intravenously, or through contact and typically kills in a matter of days. It leaves no trace of itself and even autopsies can't reveal anything out of the ordinary. The victim seems to have died of cancer. Note: Several other accelerated illnesses can be transmitted in this manner.
Surveillance Camera	Usually used to foil the PC, surveillance cameras are used liberally in many of the places the player will be exploring. Old-style surveillance cameras are still abundant, but a smaller, nanotech-built surveillance camera can be used to discreetly monitor secure areas; they are small enough to blend in with their surroundings and nearly undetectable by all but the most aware intruders. Surveillance cameras often have an exposed junction box nearby which, if you know how to do it, you can open up and disable the camera.

Armor

• Damage Absorbed is the amount of damage the item can absorb in any given attack.
• Damage Capacity is the amount of damage the item can take before it is useless.

Name	Description	Absorb	Capacity
Armored Jacket	A suit lined with armored plates. Inconspicuous and comfortable, and the ladies love it.	5	20
Ceramic-Plated Vest	A vest which is heavier and bulkier than Kevlar, but affords extra protection.	15	75
Kevlar Vest	Protects against projectile weapon attacks.	15	75
Umbrella Shield	An inconspicuous way of carrying around an extra layer of protection.	6	24
Armored Blacksuit	A black body suit for night missions with mild armor coating, this protects the entire body.	5	25
Armored Cap	A stylish, rigid cap which protects the head from taking damage.	3	18
Absorption Shield Generator (ASG)	Worn on the belt, the ASG is the most powerful form of personal protection available. It generates a field which is capable of absorbing the velocity of a fast-moving object, such as a bullet, thrown knife, or even a kick, and stopping the object's movement. Objects such as a hand (as in a handshake) or a document will pass through the ASG's field. The ASG operates on a short-lived plutionum battery that makes up most of its weight. It can stop any number of bullets or a lesser number of large projectiles, but the battery only lasts for approximately fifteen seconds. On top of that, it is noisy, generating a loud hum, and the field is visible as a blue tinted field around the agent; the agent will see the world in a blue tint and anyone looking at him will see a blue around around him.

Objects

General Objects

Name	Description
Book	Should have a variety of them. Though antiquated by the prevalence of higher-tech information media, books are still around. Click on it and get a 2d screen of its text.
V-Book	An electronic tablet with a glare-resistant screen and enough memory to store War and Peace. The high-tech answer to the good old paper book, the V-book is cheap to build and lasts longer.
Computer
Plastic Replica of the Titanic	Yes, that's right. A plastic model of the Titanic. Drop it in the fountain in the lobby and it sinks.
Oil Can	Dispenses oil. Can be used to quiet squeaky hinges or machinery
Cart	Pushable. A cart like Chris's Tech cart; objects can be placed on the top shelf, but not inside it.
Coveralls	Usable to disguise oneself as a maintenance man.

Furniture

• Stool
• Desk
• Chair
• Table
• Bookshelf